Deep in the forests of North Sumatra, Indonesia, lives the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), the world’s rarest great ape. Fewer than 800 individuals remain, confined to the Batang Toru ecosystem, a landscape that is also home to other rare species like Sumatran tigers, Sunda pangolins, agile gibbons and helmeted hornbills.
For years, debates about the future of Batang Toru have largely focused on major development projects, particularly hydropower, gold mining and geothermal energy. But our new research, published in Biological Conservation, suggests that the story is more complicated.
