Where has my home gone?

 

Let me tell you a story.  It’s about two orangutans and a tiger who live in a forest.  Read on…

 

One morning, an orangutan was going merrily about her business in the forest, swinging from tree to tree and snacking along the way.   The morning over, she went home, all ready to climb her favourite tree.

But when she arrived back in the spot where her home was, she had a shock.

Her home wasn’t there. 

Her favourite tree had gone – and so had much of the forest around it.

There was nothing there.  No green, luscious forest full of life from root to sky.  Just acre after acre of trees that had been chopped down to the ground.

The orangutan wondered what to do.  She decided to try to find new habitat, a new home.  And as she clambered away, she came across a tiger.

The tiger was in a state of disbelief.   He stared at the orangutan.

“My home!” he said.  “My home has gone!   Where’s the forest?  I don’t understand it – it was there this morning when I set out.  Where will we live?  What will we eat?”

The orangutan and the tiger were in the same boat, so they decided to set off together to see if they could find their home. 

“My brother’s home was destroyed like this,” said the tiger, “and he was so hungry he got too close to humans to see if they had any food.  They shot him.”

They went on their way and they came across a baby orangutan, sitting on the trunk of a chopped down tree, utterly bewildered.  He was too shocked to move when he saw the tiger.  The tiger lay down and watched as the orangutan approached the baby.

“My mum,” the baby said to the orangutan.  “They killed my mum.  They tried to catch me.  I don’t know what to do.” 

“Come with us,” the orangutan said, picking up the baby orangutan.  And the three of them walked away trying to find new habitat.  

In just a few hours, their home had gone.  They had no forest to live in.

*****

 

Elsewhere in the world, some people sat in an office.

“Sales are right up”, said A, looking smugly at a graph.

“But rainforest is right down,” B was worried.  “We’ve cut so much of it down to make our products.  Is it right to do that?  And what will happen when there’s no rainforest left?  How will we make our products then?”

C spoke up.  “We’ve got to make a choice,” C said.  “We could go for sustainable palm oil to make them, or no palm oil at all, or just think, well never mind, it’s not our problem so long as we keep selling stuff?”

“It’s not our problem,” said A, looking at the sales figures.  “It’s easier if we just keep going, clear the forest and build on it.  We can just stick up some trees to make up for them.”

“We go for it, the sustainable option,” B said in a determined voice.  “We lead the way and do the right ethical thing.  It’s what our customers expect and want – or it’s what they would want, if they knew about the threat to our forests if we don’t do it.”

They argued and argued.

Across the world, a tiger and two orangutans were still looking for somewhere to call home. What would happen to them if the forest was totally destroyed? 

*****

 

Down the road from the office, some people were visiting a wildlife park.

A keeper heard them talking when they got to the orangutan enclosure.

“It must be amazing to look after these animals,” said one.

“It says here that orangutans are endangered,” one another, pointing to a notice.  “I wonder why?”

The keeper came over. 

“Well, for a start the orangutans are losing their homes,” he said.   “The forests are being destroyed, and they have nowhere to go.”

“But why?” asked one of the visitors.

“The forests are being destroyed for our needs,” the keeper said.  “Things like palm oil which are in a lot of household products, like chocolate, crisps, soap, and for agriculture – beef and soya. And then the animals have nowhere to live.”

“So what can we do?” one of the visitors asked.

“Look for palm oil free products, or things which have sustainable palm oil in them,” the keeper said.  “You can get chocolate which is palm oil free, for instance, or which has sustainable palm oil.”   He paused.

“Think about these guys here and your visit next time you go shopping,” he said.  “Think of the orangutans you’ve seen, and the tigers – and then of their distant relatives in the wild.   See it as your way to care for them, just as I look after them here, making sure you buy the right product from the right company.   It doesn’t take long to learn who they are.

“It’s just a matter of making the right choice for the animals."

Across the world, a tiger and two orangutans were looking for a new home.

*****

In a forest in Sumatra, some visitors were visiting an orangutan sanctuary.  The orangutans there were all rescued from the wild.   Some had been injured, some kept as pets, captured as babies after their mothers had been killed, some had been found as orphans.

The sanctuary had local people working hard to care for the orangutans and give them the skills they needed to return to the wild. 

They were also raising funds to save rainforest by buying it, so that it couldn’t be cut down. 

That meant that the orangutans and the tiger would have somewhere to live that they could call home.

Then they could find their home.

 

So what can you and I do?

Here's a list of orangutan charities and Rainforest Rescue who are dedicated to fighting rainforest destruction have plenty of ways for you to add your voice and support rainforests.  Visit Rainforest Rescue here.