On this episode, Dr. Liana Chua (Brunel University London) talks about social anthropology in Malaysia and Indonesia, workers on Borneo and Sumatra who make their living with and around orangutans, and the tension between local community interests (which do not typically include conserving orangutans) and the great concern with the ‘plight of the orangutan’ coming from ‘the West’.

What is the history of land management on the ground and what have social anthropologists been able to show about contemporary challenges and changing community relationships with the land? Can interdisciplinary research that merges social anthropology and conservation work be the way forward, or are there considerations researchers need to consider when working within multiple frameworks?

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Show notes

If you want to get in touch with Liana to share questions or thoughts, you can find her on Twitter, her Brunel University page and the Global Lives of the Orangutan website.

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Further reading (provided by Liana)

Relations with orangutans among rural communities in Borneo and Sumatra

Although some indigenous groups tell stories about or have special ritual or ‘taboo’ relations with orangutans (as they do with other animals – birds, dragons, snakes, fish, deer, etc.), most rural people in and around orangutan habitat do not see them as particularly special or interesting. Human-orangutan conflict is an increasing issue as shrinking forests push different species into closer or more regular contact. Hunting, consumption and poaching of orangutans are also drivers of orangutan population decline.

Local perceptions of orangutans:

Campbell-Smith, G., H. V. P. Simanjorang, N. Leader-Williams, and M. Linkie. 2010. ‘Local attitudes and perceptions toward crop-raiding by Orangutans (Pongo abelii) and other nonhuman primates in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia’. American Journal of Primatology 72:866-876.

Sidu, N., J.N. Machau, M.B. Balang, and M. Gumal, eds. 2015. Orang-utan Folklores and Iban Communities. Kuching: Wildlife Conservation Society-Malaysia Program.

Human-orangutan conflict, hunting and other local level drivers of population decline:

Orangutan conservation on the ground: progress, problems, tensions

Rural communities – and individuals and groups within them – have responded in different ways to conservation interventions, each of which pursues different strategies for working with local people. There are various success stories that can be found on the websites of conservation organizations, but here are some social scientific analyses of the complications that can also arise in these interactions.

Ideas about helping and saving orangutans in the Global North

Orangutan rehabilitation: dilemmas and debates

Palmer, A. 2018a. Kill, incarcerate, or liberate? Ethics and alternatives to orangutan rehabilitation. Biological Conservation 227:181-188.

Palmer, A. 2018b. Saving and Sacrificing: Ethical Questions in Orangutan Rehabilitation. PhD thesis. London: University College London.

Parreñas, Juno Salazar. 2018. Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation. Durham: Duke University Press.

Wilson Howard B., Erik Meijaard, Oscar Venter, Marc Ancrenaz, Hugh P. Possingham. 2014. Conservation Strategies for Orangutans: Reintroduction versus Habitat Preservation and the Benefits of Sustainably Logged Forest. PLoS ONE 9 (7):e102174. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102174.

Recent conservation-social science engagements