Indonesia’s forest fires threaten a third of world’s wild orang utans

Rescued: An orang utan is evacuated from a razed forest near Sampit, Central Kalimantan. Photo: Reuters

Raging Indonesian forest fires have advanced into dense forest in Borneo and now threaten one third of the world’s remaining wild orang utans, say conservationists.

Satellite photography shows that around 100,000 fires have burned in Kalimantan’s carbon-rich peatlands since July. But instead of being mostly confined to farmland and plantations, as they are in most years, several thousand fires have now penetrated deep into primary forests and national parks, the strongholds of the remaining wild apes and other endangered animals.