In just over 60 years, we’ve lost almost 85% of the orang-utans in Borneo. Baim was a baby orang-utan delivered by rangers to the WWF team in Borneo following his rescue by local villagers. Frightened and fragile with large, terrified eyes, he was separated from his mother and only hours away from starvation.
Baim’s mother was probably the victim of poachers, a fate made all the more likely as the chainsaws rip their way through Borneo’s forests. Already, more than half of orang-utan habitat has gone. It’s not only orang-utans who are being pressed towards extinction. In the face of the world’s seemingly insatiable desire to encroach on their habitats we are seeing some of the world’s most iconic species under threat, including the tiger, the wild giant panda, and even our own black-flanked rock wallaby.
WWF are helping in the fight to:
- Protect Borneo’s orang-utans by creating a giant 220,000 km2 conservation area in the Heart of Borneo.
- Conserve the giant pandas’ home and food supply by protecting 3 million hectares of forest by 2015.
- Double wild tiger numbers by 2022 – one of the most important global conservation projects ever undertaken.
- Save the black-flanked rock wallaby by helping WWF and partners to protect habitat and to monitor and control feral predators, among the biggest threats to the safety of our precious native species
- Fight for the survival of the polar bear by keeping pressure on governments to address climate change and the melting of Arctic sea ice.
For more info, visit http://support.wwf.org.au/survivalappeal.html
