Court Battle To Save the Most Endangered Orangutan

Indonesia's major conservation organization, Walhie (Indonesian Forum for the Environment), has filed suit against the North Sumatran provincial government to stop a hydroelectric project that threatens the survival of Pongo tapanuliensis the Tapanuli organgutan, a species already near extinction due to fragmentation of the Batang Toru ecosystem. This eighth species of great ape was only described and classified by science last year. The proposed $1.6 billion dam is funded by Chinese banks. The suit seeks to revoke the environmental compliance permit issued to PT North Sumatran Hydro. It is based on multiple errors in the administrative process, as well as zoning violations since the dam site lies along a tectonic fault. The possibility of catastrophic failure due to earthquake was ignored in the project's environmental impact assessment. An asphalt road leading to the dam site has been repaved repeatedly due to cracks appearing in the road surface. The proposed project would be the largest hydro installation in Sumatra, if completed. Recently an earthen dam in Laos collapsed killing 36, with 100 missing and presumed dead.

The dam would require the clearance of hundreds of sq. kilometers of forest for transmission lines and service roads, thereby making a intact forest accessible to agriculturalists, and hunters. The forest is currently dense and provides healthy habitat for the remaining orangutans. Government officials defending the project, said the orangs "are easily tamed" and could co-exist with development, noting they make there nests near the road. As if the orangs have a choice in the matter. Humans too had little choice in the matter of dam building. One of the issues raised in the lawsuit is that there was not proper consultation with locals as required by law in the planning process. A meeting was held with villagers in which they were offered 8000 rupiah (55¢) per meter for their land, a ridiculously low price. Other villagers have refused to sell, and have protested the dam proposal. One such demonstration on August 24th turned violent.  Villagers were also not informed of the blasting operations required to build the project.  The government, however, is eager to tap into the potential 26 gigawatts of hydroelectric power located on the island; it will use its power of eminent domain to obtain the land if villagers refuse to move.

Twenty-five of the world's leading environmental scientists have written to the Indonesian president Joko Widodo urging cancellation of the dam.  Walhie has also collected 1.3 million signatures from Indonesians opposing the dam.  Scientists estimate that the project could destroy a quarter of the remaining orangutan habitat, which would lead to their extinction in the wild.  The orangs' habitat is severely fragmented; only one fragment is big enough to support the survival of its 500-600 residents long-term. [map courtesy Mongabay.com] Females do not have offspring until they mature at age 15, with nine years interspersing their pregnancies.  The developers have hired a PR firm, A+, to engage the scientists in discussions, fearing a backlash will develop against the Chinese bank funders, who see the dam project as part of the immense continent-spanning "Road & Belt" development initiative.   The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have already refused to fund the dam, largely on environmental grounds.