Indonesian Orangutan Habitat Wiped Out

"Part of a national park on Borneo island home to hundreds of endangered orangutans has been turned into a development zone complete with an airport and brothels, Indonesian activists said.

Almost 600 of the long-haired apes have disappeared from Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan province, over the past seven years of unchecked construction, the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) said in a statement.

"The number of orangutans in the area, which was 600 individuals in 2004, has fallen to only 30 to 60 individuals at present," Hardi Baktiantoro from the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) told AFP.

The East Kalimantan administration had permission from the national Forestry Ministry to build a 60-kilometre (37.2-mile) road through the park in 2002, the COP said.

But commercial and residential development covering 23,712 hectares (58,569 acres) of forest was also allowed to flourish alongside the road, with seven new villages springing up almost overnight.

"The Kutai National Park has been changing into a city, complete with an airport, gas stations, marketplace... a bus terminal and prostitution complex," COP habitat campaign manager Yon Thayrun said in a press release."

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Yahoo! News