Fires threaten Borneos orang-utans

27 March 1998

Fires threaten Borneos orang-utans

FIRES blamed on farmers using slash-and-burn methods to clear land for planting are threatening to wipe out the orang-utan population in the Indonesian part of Borneo, conservationists warned.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said they could become extinct locally. One thousand fires are raging and have destroyed 131,527.5ha (325,000 acres) this year.

• The Daily Telegraph 27/03/98 page 21