Condensed from "Urban Boom Threatens Jakarta Wildlife Reserve, Monkeys," by Reuters, published in the Cambodia Daily, Oct. 25, 2010. All text below is copyright Reuters.
JAKARTA -- The last wildlife reserve left in Indonesia's vast, traffic-choked capital is under threat from a growing tide of rubbish and angry local residents who complain that it harbours thieving monkeys.
The last such reserve in Jakarta, Muara Angke's 25 hectares are a popular destination for people eager to escape the crowded streets and view the 95 Long-tailed Macaques that live there.
Residents of a luxury residential complex in nearby Pantai Indah Kapuk have asked the managers of the reserve to eradicate the [reserve's] monkeys, which they say steal food and bite people. The demand has outrage those who work with the reserve.
"How can we ban monkeys? This is a wildlife area," said Muhammad Rifa'i, an official at Balai Mangrove Kapuk Muara, an NGO under the Muara Angke management.
Founded in the 1930s under the colonial Dutch government, [the reserve] stretched across 1,344 hectares in 1960 but has now dwindled to its meager 25 hectares, with large parcels of land sliced off for development. Pollution has also hit it hard, killing mangroves and destroying habitat.
The Angke river that runs through it -- a source of food and water for the animals -- is now badly polluted with rubbish and boat fuel. This pollution, along with illegal hunting and starvation, has helped take the monkey population down by more than 30 percent in just four years.
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