Wildfires burning across Indonesian Borneo increase pressure on critically endangered Bornean orangutans, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says. The fires are part of a broader burn season affecting parts of Borneo, and the resulting haze also spreads across neighboring areas.
IUCN says the fires are currently burning within habitats that hold 52% of Borneo’s orangutan population, including 13 of the 20 largest remaining orangutan populations. The conservation body describes peat forest exposure to fire and smoke as imposing measurable physiological, behavioral, and ecological costs for orangutans.
While the outlets largely focus on IUCN’s assessment, they emphasize slightly different details. The Philippines outlet also highlights the duration of Indonesia’s firefighting efforts in some regions and the widespread haze reaching Malaysia and Singapore. Other outlets focus primarily on the scale of orangutan habitat affected, as reported by IUCN.
