Of Apes and Poetry

A new population of orang utan was discovered in 2007 in the Batang Toru area in Sumatra and these apes were recognised as a new species in 2017 and called the Tapanuli orang utan.

So what do the authorities decide to do? Immediately declare the new species home a nature reserve? No, they decide to flood the area, home not only to the only 800 Tapanuli orang utans known to exist, but also to tigers and other rare animals. For the sake of producing electricity in an area that apparently already has an over abundance of electricity generation.

Thanks to Poetry 24 for publishing my poem about this today, which you can read here.

I've also written a letter on this topic for the Letters to the Earth project - they're accepting letters on ecological issues until 22 March so you've still got time to send something in. Letters will be read out in April as part of a large scale reading. You can find out more here.

If you want to find out more about the Tapanuli orang utan and the threats to its future, you can follow the links below:

World's rarest orang utan under threat (Guardian)

Damming Evidence (report from SOS Orang Utans)

You can find out about the SOS campaign to cancel the dam here.