Indonesia supplies half the world’s palm oil, used in hundreds of foods and cosmetics products produced as well as biofuel. Palm oil plantations are replacing four-fifths of the rain forest in Indonesia and they are still expanding. Orangutans are one of many victims of massive deforestation. They live in the wild in only two places, Sumatra and Borneo. Both species are now endangered, the Sumatran orangutan with only 6,600 left in the wild, fewer than 54,000 left in Borneo. Especially the unchecked burning of rain forests to clear land for palm oil plantations is driving orangutans to the brink of extinction in Indonesia.
