05/10/2011 (TEMPO Interactive) - The Forestry Ministry has formed a team to investigate the alleged slaying of orangutans in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan between 2009 and 2010, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan, announced yesterday.

He said the perpetrators could be charged with the Law no. 41/1999 and face up to 10 years imprisonment.

An orangutan researcher from Mulawarman University, Yaya Rayadin, said the orangutans were killed because they were viewed as pests.

Yaya said that an orangutan could eat between 30 and 50 young palm oil trunks and normally ate the leaves, roots and the fiber, which damage the plant. He added that most conflicts happened in palm oil areas as palm oil is one of the 200 kinds of orangutan food.

Yaya conducted research in coal mining areas, palm oil plantations, Bontang Forest and the Kutai National Park in East Kutai. Between 2009 and 2010, there were between 2,500 and 3,000 orangutans in the area.

Forest land conversion, he said, had damaged orangutan habitats, forcing them to seek food elsewhere.

“This is why orangutans are trapped, ousted, slaughtered or returned to conservation areas,” said Yaya.