(CONSERVATION) SELECTIVE LOGGING IMPACT ON SUMATRAN ORANGUTANS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Objective: To assess the impact of logging on Sumatran orangutan behavior and survival. (Great Ape Trust and WNPRC press release Nov. 25, 2008) Des Moines, Iowa  November 25, 2008  A scientist at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, and one of the world's leading experts on orangutans and their habitat, has been honored with a prestigious conservation award by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Dr. Serge Wich is the 2008 recipient of the Lawrence Jacobsen Conservation Research Award, which supports studies in applied conservation biology that protect nonhuman primates in their habitat. Wich has been awarded a $5,000 grant to help fund Sumatran orangutan research by students from Universitas Nasional in Jakarta and Universitas Syiah Kualah in Banda Aceh. "As a flagship species, the orangutan symbolizes the importance of the rain forest  not only to the apes and the millions of other forest species but also to the people who live near the forests and those of us around the world affected by climate change," said Wich. "I'm very honored and pleased that colleagues view the project as a meaningful contribution to orangutan conservation. Providing opportunities for Indonesian scientists-in-training to become conservation biologists is crucial for the future protection of orangutans and their habitat." The scientists' research will focus on the impact of selective logging on Sumatran orangutan behavior and survival. A better understanding of logging's effect on orangutans is necessary to design reduced-impact logging systems. These managed systems might provide opportunities for the partial extraction of timber while still conserving orangutans and their habitat. While such analysis hasn't been conducted for Sumatran orangutan populations, Wich said what greatly benefits these studies is 35 years of scientific data collected at the orangutan research site Ketambe. Important information on orangutan behavior, demography, density and food availability has provided a comprehensive pre-logging database that will be compared with the post-logging data now being collected by Indonesian and non-Indonesian students in collaboration with local field staff. "By comparing pre-logging and post-logging data, we will be able to identify any significant changes in orangutan behavior, feeding ecology, survival and density that have resulted from logging," Wich added. "These results will be important for orangutan conservation management strategies." More at: http://www.greatapetrust.org/media/releases/2008/nr_76a08.php