China-led Dam Project Under Fire in Sumatra

Tiny subspecies of orangutan under threat

By: Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat and Yeta Purnama

A frizzy-haired subspecies of Indonesia’s beloved – and critically endangered – orangutan population, whose population has fallen by 83 percent over the past 75 years, faces a major threat from a Chinese-backed 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam under construction on the Batang Toru River in northern Sumatra, en…