From: Upreshpal Singh via e-mail
On February 1 this year the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and Shangri-La Rasa Ria Resort & Spa (RR) announced the latter’s impending end of the “Orang-utan Rehabilitation & Conservation Programme” at the luxury resort in April, through an article published by the Borneo Post Online. The article also claimed the orang-utan rehabilitation programme at RR, which started in 1996, had been a success.
Friends of the Orang-utans Malaysia (Foto) found statements made by both SWD and RR to be a travesty of the reality of RR’s exploitation of Sabah’s orphan orang-utans. For the record, Foto has been relentlessly campaigning against the Shangri-La Group since mid-2015 to demand they stop the exploitation. Before the campaign took off we wrote to the CEO of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts to explain in detail the damage the Shangri-La Group are causing the orang-utans at RR but its management chose to ignore us, thus confirming our suspicions that the Shangri-La Group was exploiting the orang-utans for financial profit through tourism and leaving us no choice but to campaign.
Orphan orang-utans were sent to RR from the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC). After the orang-utans were exploited for months or years at RR they were sent back to SORC. Paying tourists were allowed to view the orang-utans from a feeding platform twice a day, every day.
Now, after months of campaigning SWD and RR have announced the exploitation through the rehabilitation facade will cease in April. If the “rehabilitation” programme was a success, why stop it? Could it be because the Shangri-La Group’s unethical practice has been repeatedly exposed by Foto in public before the long awaited announcement?
RR’s supposed rehabilitation of orang-utans breaks the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines on great ape rehabilitation and the Shangri-La Group is aware of this fact. Moreover, great ape rehabilitation must only take place in a proper rehabilitation centre – strictly adhering to rehabilitation guidelines and protocols – and not a luxury hotel.
The Borneo Post article states that since 1996 43 orang-utans have been rehabilitated from RR (this information comes from either SWD or RR). Firstly, are all the orang-utans at the SORC now? If yes, when will ex-RR orang-utans be hard-released into the Tabin Wildlife Reserve? Some (at least) have been reported as permanently released into the Sepilok-Kabili forest where daily food provisioning is provided. Could it be because they do not have the skills needed to survive or are too human-habituated to be released in Tabin? Secondly, will RR show evidence of the 43 orang-utans that have been sent back to SORC? Our second concern is interpreted further below.
In the same Borneo Post article the resort claims it is “grateful for the opportunity” given to raise awareness about orang-utans. Is this another veiled excuse to exploit orang-utans? Awareness programmes must be done without exploiting orang-utans. Foto and our colleagues in Indonesia carry out awareness programmes ourselves.
In a legitimate rehabilitation centre tourism is not allowed as for the following reasons:
minimise habituation to humans
reduce disease risks. Diseased and/or habituated orang-utans may never make it into the wild. And by ‘wild’ we don’t mean the Sepilok-Kabili forest, approximately only 4,300 hectares in size, as it is not a final release (hard-release) site for orang-utans in Sabah. Moreover, tourism takes place at the (SORC), which is at the edge of the Sepilok-Kabili forest.
Many individuals have expressed concern regarding the treatment and care orang-utans at the resort receive. We received worrying reports of orang-utans dying at the resort and those who were sent back to the SORC sick. Foto asked the Shangri-La Group how many orang-utans had died at RR and for them to produce their rehabilitation data sheet but our requests were ignored. Why so if the Shangri-La Group have nothing to hide? Could it be because they are afraid a massive can of worms will be opened? Was there any rehabilitation carried out at RR at all? We also suspect a number of orang-utans declared as rehabilitated from RR are now dead. The Shangri-La Group has always remained tight-lipped.
Earlier last year a former General Manager of RR admitted “this (the orang-utans at RR) is one of the assets that we have here”. The orang-utans at the RR are nothing but ‘assets’ to the Shangri-La Group to be discarded when redundant, aren’t they?
To make matters worse for the Shangri-La Group, conservationists respected worldwide have also spoken up publicly to protest the exploitation at RR.
The exploitation of SORC’s orphan orang-utans by RR is nothing to be proud of and obviously not a success. In fact it brought a tremendous amount of condemnation from conservationists & NGOs and shame to Sabah and our country in general.
While we are relieved the exploitation will come to an end in April the two remaining infant orang-utans at RR must be sent back to the SORC immediately before they become more habituated to humans or possibly contract disease.
Foto urges the SWD to stop corporate interests exploiting Sabah’s wildlife for financial profit, now and in the future. We will not rest when wildlife is exploited and their habitat is destroyed for oil palm plantations or any other reason.
Borneo Post Online article: Orangutan care program nearly completed at Rasa Ria Resort
Upreshpal Singh is Director of Friends of the Orang-utans.
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