Orangutans 'face greater threat'

Illegal logging is destroying forests in South-East Asia quicker than had been feared, with dire implications for orangutans, a UN report has said. The practice threatens many other species in the region, the United Nations Environment Programme says. If no action is taken, the report says, 98% of forests on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo may be gone by 2022. This would have serious consequences for local people and wildlife including rhinos, tigers and elephants. "The situation is now acute for the orangutans," the authors wrote. "The rapid rate of removal of food trees, killing of orangutans displaced by logging and plantation development, and fragmentation of remaining intact forest, constitutes a conservation emergency."