To begin understanding why the orangutan remains a threatened species, there is a need to apply the tragedy of the commons to the situation.
Source: Ape Rescue
The tragedy of the commons is the dilemma in which multiple individuals act out of their own personal interest, freedom, and rationality in the pursuit of their self-interest, eventually depleting a shared limited pool of resources even when it is clear that it is in nobody’s interest for it to happen.
For illegal loggers and plantation developers, a price tag is placed on the forests. With every additional hectare of forest that they clear, they will be able to harvest more timber and built more palm oil plantations, and thus increasing their earnings. The rising global demand for these commodities would also mean a larger market that they can benefit from.
To them, there is little harm in destroying part of the forest; massive amounts of it can still be found across the nation. The mentality is that if they do not seize this money-making opportunity, others will do it in their place anyway. Taken together, this common mindset will drive large numbers of illegal loggers and plantation developers to destroy massive amount lowlands and swamps at an alarming rate.
Source: The Stranger
Similarly, poachers and traders earn easy money from the sale of baby orangutans and/or orangutan body parts. There is little incentive for them to stop or reduce their actions, as the individual profits earned from these transactions are perceived to be much more than the cost than to the larger community.
For every one orangutan that they set free, others poachers and traders would be the ones sending these same primates back onto the black market. In their pursuit to gain the most out of these illegal sales, none of them will stop to take a look at the rapid declining rate of the orangutan population.
For more information about the different threats that orangutans face, click on the links below to find out: