Cargando…

Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management

Ecological studies of orangutans have almost exclusively focused on populations living in primary or selectively logged rainforest. The response of orangutans to severe habitat degradation remains therefore poorly understood. Most experts assume that viable populations cannot survive outside undistu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Meijaard, Erik, Albar, Guillaume, Nardiyono, Rayadin, Yaya, Ancrenaz, Marc, Spehar, Stephanie
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20877646
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012813
_version_ 1782187055454879744
author Meijaard, Erik
Albar, Guillaume
Nardiyono,
Rayadin, Yaya
Ancrenaz, Marc
Spehar, Stephanie
author_facet Meijaard, Erik
Albar, Guillaume
Nardiyono,
Rayadin, Yaya
Ancrenaz, Marc
Spehar, Stephanie
author_sort Meijaard, Erik
collection PubMed
description Ecological studies of orangutans have almost exclusively focused on populations living in primary or selectively logged rainforest. The response of orangutans to severe habitat degradation remains therefore poorly understood. Most experts assume that viable populations cannot survive outside undisturbed or slightly disturbed forests. This is a concern because nearly 75% of all orangutans live outside protected areas, where degradation of natural forests is likely to occur, or where these are replaced by planted forests. To improve our understanding of orangutan survival in highly altered forest habitats, we conducted population density surveys in two pulp and paper plantation concessions in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. These plantations consist of areas planted with fast-growing exotics intermixed with stands of highly degraded forests and scrublands. Our rapid surveys indicate unexpectedly high orangutan densities in plantation landscapes dominated by Acacia spp., although it remains unclear whether such landscapes can maintain long-term viable populations. These findings indicate the need to better understand how plantation-dominated landscapes can potentially be incorporated into orangutan conservation planning. Although we emphasize that plantations have less value for overall biodiversity conservation than natural forests, they could potentially boost the chances of orangutan survival. Our findings are based on a relatively short study and various methodological issues need to be addressed, but they suggest that orangutans may be more ecologically flexible than previously thought.
format Text
id pubmed-2943906
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2010
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-29439062010-09-28 Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management Meijaard, Erik Albar, Guillaume Nardiyono, Rayadin, Yaya Ancrenaz, Marc Spehar, Stephanie PLoS One Research Article Ecological studies of orangutans have almost exclusively focused on populations living in primary or selectively logged rainforest. The response of orangutans to severe habitat degradation remains therefore poorly understood. Most experts assume that viable populations cannot survive outside undisturbed or slightly disturbed forests. This is a concern because nearly 75% of all orangutans live outside protected areas, where degradation of natural forests is likely to occur, or where these are replaced by planted forests. To improve our understanding of orangutan survival in highly altered forest habitats, we conducted population density surveys in two pulp and paper plantation concessions in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. These plantations consist of areas planted with fast-growing exotics intermixed with stands of highly degraded forests and scrublands. Our rapid surveys indicate unexpectedly high orangutan densities in plantation landscapes dominated by Acacia spp., although it remains unclear whether such landscapes can maintain long-term viable populations. These findings indicate the need to better understand how plantation-dominated landscapes can potentially be incorporated into orangutan conservation planning. Although we emphasize that plantations have less value for overall biodiversity conservation than natural forests, they could potentially boost the chances of orangutan survival. Our findings are based on a relatively short study and various methodological issues need to be addressed, but they suggest that orangutans may be more ecologically flexible than previously thought. Public Library of Science 2010-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC2943906/ /pubmed/20877646 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012813 Text en Meijaard et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Meijaard, Erik
Albar, Guillaume
Nardiyono,
Rayadin, Yaya
Ancrenaz, Marc
Spehar, Stephanie
Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title_full Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title_fullStr Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title_full_unstemmed Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title_short Unexpected Ecological Resilience in Bornean Orangutans and Implications for Pulp and Paper Plantation Management
title_sort unexpected ecological resilience in bornean orangutans and implications for pulp and paper plantation management
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20877646
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012813
work_keys_str_mv AT meijaarderik unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement
AT albarguillaume unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement
AT nardiyono unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement
AT rayadinyaya unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement
AT ancrenazmarc unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement
AT speharstephanie unexpectedecologicalresilienceinborneanorangutansandimplicationsforpulpandpaperplantationmanagement