Roads, both existing and planned, are a major threat to Sumatran orangutans as they increasingly fragment populations, making them more vulnerable and less viable. Often such roads are crossing protected areas such as the Gunung Leuser National Park.

Sumatran orangutans occur in two main forest habitats, those on dryland mineral soils and those on wet coastal peat. The three main peat areas are Singkil, Kluet and Tripa on the west coast of Aceh province.

Orangutan habitat overlaps the catchments of 44 major rivers in Sumatra, each of which reaches the coast and discharges into the sea. Thus it is very important to guarantee proper functioning of ecosystem services related to water.

Illegal transport and organization of illegal logging by syndicates. Much of the timber is re-sold during transport and thus changes ownership en route, obliterating tracking efforts to trace origins and diluting import-export figures.

An estimated 88% of Sumatran orangutan habitat is on land classified by Indonesian Government studies (RePPProT) as completely unsuitable for cultivation of major crops such as oil palm, rubber, robusta coffee or cocoa. Only 1.3% of orangutan habitat is deemed ideal for one or more of these crops, while 10.7% could be suitable with significant inputs, such as fertilizer and irrigation.

The main driver for forest loss on peat areas in the Leuser Ecosystem was oil palm development between 1985 and 2007, while for forest on non-peatlands other land uses than oil palm contributed more to land use changes.

Sumatran orangutan habitat overlaps 2 Provinces and 21 Districts, presenting many challenges for integrated development policies. 78% of the species’ present range lies within Aceh, and the remaining 22% in North Sumatra. A total of 13 districts in Aceh, and eight in North Sumatra, contain forests where wild Sumatran orangutans still occur.

In the Tripa peat swamps, companies are operating seven large concessions of between 3,000 and 13,000 hectares. They are converting the remaining forests on peatlands into oil palm plantations. The concessions cover more than 75 percent of Tripa’s total area of 62,000 hectares. While almost certainly hosting as many as 1,000 orangutans or more in the early 1990s, when still covered in pristine peat swamp forest, there are thought to be less than ...

The mining industry is a potential threat to Sumatran orangutan habitat in a number of important areas, both directly by its own activities and indirectly by road access. It includes a major gold mine near the town of Batang and iron ore mining in the Alas valley, and planned development of coal mining in the hill forests inland of the Tripa swamps.

Forests that support Sumatran orangutans also harbour high numbers of other animal and plant species, including some of the most emblematic megafauna species in the world, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) and Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis).

The Bukit Barisan mountain range that runs down the full length of Sumatra reach altitudes of over 3,000 meters above sea level (m asl), with the highest peaks being Gunung Kerinci in West Sumatra (3,800 m asl) and Gunung Leuser (3,404 m asl) in Aceh. Sumatran orangutan habitat is primarily in lowland areas. The highest densities are found below 500 m asl, but individuals can still be encountered on occasion as high as 2,000 m asl.

The Red Knot is a migratory shorebird that travels up to 20,000 km twice a year from its breeding grounds on the high Arctic tundra to its southern non-breeding sites. Along with having one of the longest total migrations of any bird, some populations also fly as much as 8,000–9,000 km between stopover sites in a single flight. As a shellfish-eating specialist avoiding pathogen-rich freshwater habitats, the Red Knot relies on the few large ti...

Acknowledging ecological networks and how their disruption may have an impact populations of migratory species is essential for the survival of these species and for fostering international collaboration. This is an overview of migratory routes for selected marine animals.

A large iron mine, operated by the Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, has now been proposed in Baffin Island, with possibly severe impacts on wildlife on the island, such as development across the calving grounds of the caribou, and the establishment of two major ports. A 149 kilometres railway is planned, 100 kilometres of roads, 83 quarries (producing ca. 29,500,000 tons), and in an operation phase with an estimated traffic of 110 trucks per da...

The grasslands of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay in southern South America represent important habitat to numerous migratory and resident bird species. These birds play vital roles in the ecosystem by dispersing seeds and controlling insect populations. Some species, such as the Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis), migrate some 20,000 km from their breeding grounds along the Arctic coast to their non-breeding rang...

Saiga Antelope locations in Kazakhstan in a period between 1970 to 2008.

Red Knots set off in April with large fat reserves (fuel) from the airport “West Coast National Park” (the Langebaan Lagoon tidal flats in South Africa) to fly 7,000–8,000 km until they reach the tidal flats of Guinea Bissau, the airport “Banc d’Arguin National Park” in Mauritania or another appropriate refuelling site. They recover the resources they lost and intensively feed for three weeks on protein-rich shellfish allowing them to almost do...

A spatial configuration of an Ecological Network, showing how various resources are connected in the landscape

This graph shows proposed commercial roads across the Serengeti and surrounding region in 2010. However, following intense international pressure, the Tanzanian Government announced in 2011 that it will favour an alternative route to the South, outside the park. Some projections suggest that if the road were built, numbers may fall to less than 300,000 (Dobson and Borner, 2010), others that the herd could decline by a third (Holdo et al., 2011), ...

The Leatherback Turtle is a long-distance migratory sea turtle, travelling between tropical breeding grounds and multiple pelagic and coastal foraging regions located in temperate and tropical waters. There are effectively two breeding stocks in the Pacific: a western Pacific stock that nests in Indonesia (Papua Barat), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu; and an eastern Pacific stock that nests in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicar...