Tapanuli orangutan under dam threat

FRAGILE HABITAT The $ 1.6 billion Chinese project, which is expected to be operational by 2022, will cut through the heart of the critically endangered animal’s habitat.

Jakarta, Oct. 21: A billiondollar hydroelectric dam development in Indonesia that threatens the habitat of the world’s rarest great ape has sparked fresh concerns about the impact of China’s globe- spanning infrastructure drive.

The site of the dam in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra island is the only known habitat of the Tapanuli orangutan, a newly discovered species that numbers about 800 individuals in total.

The $ 1.6 billion project, which is expected to be operational by 2022, will cut through the heart of the critically endangered animal's habitat, which is also home to agile gibbons, siamangs and Sumatran tigers. Indonesian firm PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy is building the power plant with backing from Sinosure, a Chinese state- owned enterprise that insures overseas investment projects, and the Bank of China, company documents show.

Chinese SOE Sinohydro, which built the mammoth Three Gorges Dam, was awarded the onstruction contract. The development is one of dozens being pushed by the government to improve electricity supply throughout the archipelago, parts of which are plagued by blackouts.

But the Chinese- backed project has sparked fierce resistance from conservationists, who say the potential environmental risk has already seen the World Bank Group shy away from involvement.

Its Chinese backers appear undeterred, however, something critics say underscores the troubling environmental impact of Beijing’s trademark “Belt and Road Initiative”, which seeks to link Asia, Europe and Africa with a network of ports, highways and railways.

“This issue is becoming in some ways the face of the Belt and Road initiative,” Professor Bill Laurance, director of Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University in Australia, said.