Scientist Birutė Galdikas is famous all over the world: this is my message to the members of the Lithuanian Seimas
While visiting Lithuania, Lithuanian scientist, anthropologist, primatologist, mostly orangutan researcher, Professor Birutė Galdikas drew attention to the most sensitive problems of the whole world and Lithuania in combating climate change. Delivering a lecture at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) on the important activities of the professor of forest conservation to the members of the Lithuanian Seimas.
Professor 1971 In Indonesia, in the part of the island of Borneo, also known as Kalimantan, the first orangutan observation center was established in the Tanjongputing National Park. To protect these animals and their ecosystem, the scientist has been working in the Indonesian rainforest for 50 years, as well as making great efforts to rehabilitate wild but captive orangutans and release them into the Borneo rainforest.
Birutė Galdikas
© NET
Cutting down trees for orangutans is deadly
According to B. Galdik, most orangutans live in Indonesia, in the part of the island of Borneo that is known as Kalimantan. “My research space was initially about 3,500 hectares, we helped persuade the Indonesian government to set up a national park in the place where I work, this place was a new wildlife reserve, which means that animals cannot be killed or their habitats destroyed,” her workplace is narrated by an anthropologist.
The scientist explains that the orangutan in Malay is “orang hutan”, which means “forest man”. “I’m sure the orangutans could talk, but they chose not to talk because they didn’t want to be hired to make these animals more enjoyable and eat wild fruit,” she says. According to the professor, orangutans more than 60 percent. spends time eating fruit.
B. Galdik emphasizes that orangutans are fruit eaters, so they depend on the forest. For example, due to mass deforestation in Southeast Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia, where orangutans live, these animals suffer from food shortages. If trees are cut down, orangutans no longer have anything to eat, they starve or may even die from evil, it happens that in search of food comes and people who grow fruits, gardens.
Deforested forest
The biggest threat to orangutans is the palm oil industry
The greatest threats to orangutans and tropical forests are highlighted by poaching, illegal logging, illegal excavations, palm oil plantations, and fires.
However, the scientist considers the extraction of palm oil to be the most devastating threat. “This oil is the cheapest possible vegetable oil, it is advertised and sold as raw and healthy, but it is not true, it is one of the reasons for deforestation, for example, one of the practices used to establish palm oil plantations – tropical forest burning.” – explains the professor.
Rainforests are burned and felled to make way for palm plantations
Mr Galdik also points to the growing phenomenon of El Nino due to climate change, where the weather is most often affected in South America, South-East Asia or Australia, causing extreme drought and other extreme weather events. The researcher says that El Nino is becoming more common, leading to many fires and droughts, and finally, deforestation, leading to the extinction of various species, including orangutans.
What is being done to change the situation?
Mr Galdiko and his colleagues set up the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), which also includes the Camp Leakey Orangutan Research Center and the Orangutan Cere Center and Quarantine (OCCQ). identified threats to orangutans and rainforests. The professor says a little more work is being done with the Indonesian government as well.
“We are working to rehabilitate wild captive-born orangutans, and we have been lucky to have a rehabilitation program since 1971. When we first came here, we set up an orangutan care center and worked with the Indonesian government, Galdik recalls, and we raised many wild captive-born orangutans and managed to bring about 800 back into the wild in 50 years. We are also rescuing wild orangutans and moving them to safe forests. ”
Birutė Galdikas
The organization conducts research on orangutans and forests, and implements a tree planting program. The professor says that from 2017. OFI has planted nearly half a million trees. The organization also runs educational initiatives, both local and international, to raise awareness of orangutans wherever possible. According to the education program from 2018. OFI visited about 200 educational institutions, local villages, spoken by more than 50,000 students and pupils.
The professor emphasizes that the organization not only tracks orangutans, observes them, engages in rehabilitation, but also tries to expand its activities as much as possible, interacts with locals, conducts research on orangutans and forests. OFI also employs more than 200 local Indonesians.
How can each of us help save the orangutans?
According to B. Galdikas, first of all, the most important thing is to protect the trees, secondly, there is no place to plant them. “This is the only thing that can improve the elimination of climate change, if every inhabitant of the planet planted one tree, it would no longer be a problem,” she explains. Thirdly, the professor emphasizes the importance of paper sorting: “If you sort it, you do not need to import paper made from tropical forest trees.” And the most important thing, according to the researcher, is to say “no” to palm oil. “I’m waiting for sustainable palm oil, but it doesn’t exist yet, all you hear about sustainable palm oil is ‘green brainwashing’, I’m not against palm oil, I just want it to be extracted,” in a few ways, how it helps to preserve orangutans and forests, presents B. Galdik.
Birutė Galdikas
© DELFI / Rinatas Chairulin
During the lecture, the researcher shares and hears many years ago the idea of former US Vice President Al Ghor that the environmental crisis is a spiritual crisis. “I remember it and it’s pure truth, a spiritual crisis in the sense that it affects every individual,” says the researcher and emphasizes, “how individually we can’t do but can do at least something great, governments will hear what we say, change them.” economic system or planetary system, because we have to be like oranges, bonobos, chimpanzees or gorillas, distinguished only by the fact that our ecology is an economy and it shapes our culture, our lives ”.
The scientist hopes the Indonesian government will work even harder to protect not only orangutans but also all endangered species and forests. “They’re talking in golden words about tropical forest conservation, but at the same time watching over palm oil extraction, logging, we’re trying to change what’s going on in Indonesia, but it’s up to us, it depends on the Indonesian youth and I hope the next generation, young people will definitely make a difference. I hope that future generations will continue, which I started, my dream to keep this legacy. ”
The most important thing is to look back at yourself
A prominent researcher explains how her desire to be a part of the natural world came about. “I had such a vision for my parents, I went to Borneo for my parents, because they took me to the forest, to nature every weekend. My mom and I went to a park near the house, she showed me the trees, the leaves that could be used to make tea, other herbs that could be used. My dad in Los Angeles would go out into the yard, reach out, then the blue ones would land on the palm of their hand and eat bread crumbs. I can believe that. Such was his connection with nature, that is, the spirit of old Lithuania. Before leaving Lithuania, he was a farmer, my father had that old spirit, connection with nature and the wild world, and for me this is what Lithuania and its culture represent. Such an old pagan religion, for which Lithuanians fought so much, turned it back, I kept it that Lithuanians were the last people in Europe, they had to be Christian. It seems to me that this is a nation that has a deep connection with nature, culture and history, – says B. Galdikas and adds – when I was a child, when I was studying the Lithuanian language, I learned that there is a great deal between Lithuanian and forest. strong connection, it would be wonderful if that connection were revived. “
B. Galdikas does not hide his disappointment to learn that Lithuania has less than 30 percent. forest in the territory of the country. “Latvians have 60%, Estonians more than 60%, so why are we only 30%?” The professor asks.
Punia heath from a bird’s eye view
© Renatas Jakaitis
She states that in Lithuania less than 1 percent. the forest is protected. “The country is home to about 2.5 million people and we have very only one percent of protected forests.” According to her, the first and most important step is to look back at yourself.
The scientist visited Punia Šilė for the second time, she hopes that the Lithuanian Parliament will declare this place a strict nature reserve, as well as include the territory that is already being crossed. “You know, those three thousand hectares in the Punia heath are important, it is important to set an example to the world, this is my message to the Lithuanian Parliament,” says B. Galdikas.
Galdik was a member of The Trimates
According to OFI’s website, B. Galdikas was born after the end of the Second World War, and her parents left Lithuania for Canada at that time. The most famous orangutan researcher is the six-gate first book of her library “Curious George” and at that time she was inspired by the book’s hero with a yellow flight and his disobedient monkey, in the second grade she decided to become a researcher.
B. Galdikas holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and zoology and a master’s degree in anthropology. As a graduate student, she first met anthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey at the University of California, Los Angeles (ULCA), who encouraged her to study primates, and told him about her willingness to work with orangutans.
Birutė Galdikas
The researcher claims to have left the mentor, but mentions L. Leakey as one of the most important. B. Galdik got acquainted with history and history as a scientist. “He was giving a lecture at UCLA that I had graduated from. I was not a dr. L. Leakey is a student, but I approached him, said I wanted to study orangutans, and asked: can you help me? He agreed. From the moment I approached dr. L. Leakey, three years before I finally left for Borneo. When you are twenty, as I was at the time, three years seems like an eternity. Now such a period passes in an instant, if someone says that I have to wait three years, no problem. “
L. Leakey helped two more scientists – Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees, Dian Fossey – a mountain gorilla, the third was B. Galdik. “We all approached Leakey and asked for help, and later became known as members of The Trimates,” says scientist D. Fossey, who died in 1985. In Rwanda, fighting for the conservation of mountain gorillas, the remaining two, The Trimates, continue to this day.
B. Galdik: “I had a vision, I had a dream”
The orangutan researcher says she initially wanted to go to the island of Sumatra, but when she came to Indonesia she was directed to Borneo, because in Kalimantan, no one in Borneo did any research with orangutans: “The Indonesian government said I was going to Borneo and I asked to Sumatra, but life decides for you. ”
Moments from volunteering on the island of Borneo / Photo by “Superturo” and Birutė Galdikas Foundation.
© GRYNAS.lt
“I had a vision, I had my dream, and I hadn’t dreamed of going to the southeast forests, exploring the orangutan about them more than anyone has ever learned, then saying that I spent my life exploring the orangutans,” says Galdik. The professor says he had examples – J. Goodall and D. Foster. “I really didn’t know it was my example, we didn’t become friends, we became sisters,” says the researcher, adding, “I realized it was an opportunity and I’ve taken it.”