The rarest orangutans are about to get wiped out by a gold mine.

Less than 800 Tapanuli orangutans are still alive and we don’t have much
time to save them.

[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 

   
John,

The last known 800 Tapanuli orangutans on Earth face having their
Indonesian forest home ripped from beneath them -- by a British company’s
thirst for gold.

Jardine Matheson and its gold mining company want to destroy this precious
ecosystem in Batang Toru, Northern Sumatra out of pure greed -- driving
the rarest great ape to extinction.

Just in the past month, satellite images revealed a new expansion of the
Martable Mine into the heart of orangutan territory. But if we act fast
with a massive public campaign exposing Jardine Matheson, we can stop the
mine’s expansion and protect the orangutans and their habitat before it’s
too late.

[ [link removed] ]Tell Jardine Matheson to STOP expanding its mine into orangutan
territory NOW.

The Tapanuli orangutan, which is the rarest great ape in the world, was
first documented by scientists in 2017. It’s the first great ape to be
recorded for a century and it only lives in the Batang Toru Forest in
Indonesia. Sadly, there are only 800 of the charismatic primates left.

Unfortunately for the newly identified and already endangered great ape,
its forest home sits on top of a rich seam of gold - which is currently
being mined by a British company.

Jardine Matheson has been run by the same British family, the Keswicks,
since the Victorian era. It bought the Martabe gold mine in 2018 and has
expanded it further into the habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan ever since.

So far, the Martabe mine has already destroyed at least 30 ha of Tapanuli
orangutan forest habitat -- an area of the Batang Toru forest equivalent
to at least 42 football fields.

If we don’t act now, scientists warn that the entire Tapanuli orangutan
population could be decimated in less than 10 years.

[ [link removed] ]Tell Jardine Matheson to put the survival of the rarest great ape over
its greed for gold.

The survival of the Tapanuli orangutan truly is a test for humanity, but
in reality it’s a simple one. All that Jardine Matheson needs to do is to
halt any future expansion projects in Batang Toru and work with the
International Union for Conservation of Nature on a plan to preserve the
rarest great ape and its habitat.

When SumOfUs members come together, we achieve wonders. In May 2015, we
got together to tell Jardine Matheson and its luxury hotel subsidiary
Mandarin Oriental to save and protect the Sumatran Elephant, and it
listened to all of us. Today, an even greater threat is looming over the
last Tapanuli orangutans and we must ramp up the pressure on Jardine
Matheson to do the right thing once again.

[ [link removed] ]Tell Jardine Matheson to put the survival of the rarest great ape over
its greed for gold.



[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 



Thanks for all that you do,
Fatah and the team at SumOfUs


More information:

[ [link removed] ]Revealed: Newly-discovered orangutan species is 'being driven to
extinction' by British firm’s goldmine, The Telegraph, 6 September 2020
[ [link removed] ]The historical range and drivers of decline of the Tapanuli
orangutan, PLOS, 4 January 2021
[ [link removed] ]IUCN calls for a moratorium on projects impacting the Critically
Endangered Tapanuli orangutan, IUCN, 16 April 2019

 

 

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