Tue, 12/09/2025 - 12:00am
Concerns the mining company Jardine Matheson’s decision to move ahead with expanding the mine – without an agreed plan in place to reduce impacts to the Tapanulis – have spread beyond the scientific community. Last year, Norway’s $1.6tn sovereign wealth fund sold its holdings in three Jardines firms, citing concerns about the company being responsible for “severe environmental damage”.
Tapanulis, with their frizzy, cinnamon hair and wide faces, are not only the rarest orangutan, but represent the oldest lineage of all orangutan species – descendants of the first ancestral orangutans that arrived in Sumatra from mainland Asia more than 3m years ago.