Orangutans are critically threatened by palm oil plantation expansion across Borneo and Sumatra. Individual welfare and population survival depend on halting deforestation and illegal capture.
Deforestation for palm oil creates acute and chronic welfare harms for individual orangutans. Animals displaced by forest clearing face starvation, heat stress, and vulnerability to human conflict as they move through fragmented and human-dominated landscapes. Fires cause burns, respiratory injury, and death. Orphaned infants whose mothers are killed in habitat clearance require years of intensive care and behavioral rehabilitation before they can survive independently. The long-term welfare of rehabilitated individuals depends on the availability of protected forest for release. Addressing orangutan welfare requires both supply chain reform in palm oil and robust legal protection of remaining forest habitat.