Forest fires in Indonesia threaten the main orangutan research center in Borneo
Kyiv • UNN
The fire has approached the station in Borneo, where more than 2,500 orangutans are being studied. Scientists warn: the flames could reach the camp in 20 days.
Forest fires in Indonesia are engulfing an important research area where Bornean orangutans are studied and are now threatening a renowned scientific camp — the site of one of the world’s longest-running studies of wild great apes, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.
Over the past few days, the fire has come within 200 meters of the “Rangkong” station — an auxiliary facility of the “Cabang Panti” research station, located approximately four miles to the north within Gunung Palung National Park.
Hundreds of Bornean orangutans (*Pongo pygmaeus*) — one of three orangutan species — live in the immediate vicinity of these stations; overall, the park, significant parts of which are currently engulfed in flames, is estimated to be home to more than 2,500 individuals. All three orangutan species are critically endangered.
“The orangutans are fleeing these forests. It’s just horrific,” said Professor Cheryl Knott, a biological anthropologist at Boston University who has led scientific research on orangutans at the “Cabang Panti” station for 32 years.
In most cases, the fires are caused by deliberate burning to clear land — a practice carried out on the island every year. However, an extremely powerful El Niño event (a rise in sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific that disrupts global weather patterns) has caused abnormal heat and drought across the country, allowing the fire to easily spread out of control. In West Kalimantan province, there are areas that have received almost no rain for many months.
Scientists at the “Cabang Panti” station have collected decades’ worth of data on wild orangutans and the details of their lives; they have observed individual animals from birth until they themselves became grandmothers. Research conducted in this area helped determine the orangutans’ reproductive cycle: it was found that these apes give birth only once every eight years — the longest cycle of any mammal. “The uniqueness of this database lies in its long-term nature and extraordinary level of detail,” Knott emphasized.
However, the fires threaten to interrupt these continuous observations. According to scientists, if no action is taken or wide firebreaks are not created, the fire will reach the “Cabang Panti” station within 20 days at its current rate of spread. “[Cabang Panti] protects one of the few areas of lowland tropical rainforest in Borneo that have remained truly ecologically intact,” said Professor Andrew Marshall, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan who led the orangutan research project in the area from 2000 to 2020. “Without long-term, continuous field data, we will not be able to understand how tropical ecosystems adapt to or suffer from global climate change.”
In a desperate attempt to save the “Rangkong” research station, a team of more than 40 people — mostly field assistants, staff members, and local residents — is fighting around the clock against the steadily advancing fire. Recently, they established a firebreak and an improvised irrigation system, using a perforated hose around the station to saturate the surrounding peat with moisture.
When fire reaches peatland, it can smolder underground for months — even after the surface flames have been extinguished. Maintaining peat moisture is therefore a crucial protective measure.
“The scale of the problem exceeds the capabilities of any local organization,” said Caitlin O’Connell, deputy director of the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program. — “We need large-scale aerial water drops and professional firefighters.”
Even if the research station can be saved, it may prove futile if the orangutans lose their home.
"Orangutans need the forest," Nott said. "If all we have left is a building, what will we study when the orangutans themselves and their food are gone? They will not be able to survive without this forest."
Because orangutans lead solitary lives, they need large territories and live at low population densities. "You cannot simply herd them all together into a patch of remaining forest," Nott remarked.
Those directly managing the firefighting efforts on the ground have already seen how this is affecting the animals. "We spotted five orangutans from the population we have been studying for a long time; they were fleeing the fire, and some were just a few meters from the flames," said Wahyu Susanto, the scientific director of Yayasan Palung, an Indonesian non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting Bornean orangutans. "These are individuals we have observed and studied for years."
Indonesian meteorologists are forecasting an intense fire season lasting until October, as climate forecasts point to a strengthening El Niño phenomenon. "Fire hotspots are everywhere," O'Connell said. "It would not be an exaggeration to say that what we thought could not burn may in fact disappear completely if this drought continues for months."
El Niño may become the strongest in decades - UN03.09.26, 14:31 • 5151 view