Running out of places to hide (Image: Shiv Yoshino/Monden/FLPA)

THE mournful eyes of the orphaned baby orang-utans held in Borneo’s sanctuaries would tug at the stoniest of hearts. But while rehabilitating abandoned orang-utans is admirable, it seems increasingly clear that it will not help to conserve a species in danger of extinction through habitat loss.

Instead, orang-utan researchers and conservationists in Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, may have to do what had until recently been unthinkable: join forces with the palm oil industry whose plantations have eaten into much of the orang-utan’s habitat. October this year will see an unprecedented meeting …