Pineapple that is half eaten by an orangutan in a plantation.
Credits: Orangutan Foundation

Both logging and conversion of forests into plantations have contributed to large and unsustainable level of deforestation. Due to the greatly restricted areas with which orangutans are able to roam and find food, many starving orangutans can sometimes wonder out of the forests. This causes land conflict between the orangutans and the locals as they often raid crops which the locals plant, and search for food in the villages. These orangutans are often killed by the locals, who see them as pests. Palm oil companies also see orangutans as pests and there was an instance whereby the company offered money to the locals to kill orangutan ‘pests’, giving 150 000 rupiah for every orangutan killed. A local NGO was eventually able to save the orangutans in that area but it is likely that other palm oil companies have implemented similar policies.

A survey that was done found that at least 188 orangutans were killed due to human orangutan conflict each year.