Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 12255066

As farmlands continue to expand into forests, conflict between farmers and orangutans is increasing. The Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU) are working to turn the situation around.

 

Large areas of orangutan habitat have been lost or degraded due to agriculture and logging. As a result, the apes are pushed into the areas where forest and farmlands meet. With natural food hard to find, crop raiding - a key cause of conflict - becomes increasingly likely.

Human-orangutan conflict (HOC) is bad news for both sides. For the farmers, raided or damaged crops can have a real impact on income. But for orangutans, the outcome can be catastrophic. These charismatic animals, which need to roam to find food, are exposed to higher levels of hunting and poaching. As a critically endangered species, these are risks the Sumatran orangutan could well do without.

There are several sites within northern Sumatra where orangutans are known or suspected to be raiding crops. The Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), receive reports of conflict and crop raiding from communities across North Sumatra and Aceh. They work with farmers and plantation workers, providing training in various methods of HOC prevention such as using noise to scare the orangutans off. In order to be successful, such methods need to be simple, affordable and safe - for orangutans and for people.

HOCRU runs regular educational activities, farmer workshops and surveys so that we can understand more about the causes and solutions to HOC.

The team is also regularly involved in rescuing orangutans being illegally kept as pets, or relocating orangutans found stranded in farmlands back into the forest.

Together, these actions will help reduce conflict and enable humans and orangutans to co-exist.