ABSTRACT
This chapter concludes by reflecting on what can be learned about conservation from the orangutan case. Orangutan conservation is described as a kind of “perfect storm” in which a large number of passionate people, with a wide variety of ideas about ethics, come together under “emergency” conditions of rapidly shrinking forests and a steady stream of apes displaced from their forest homes. In such a context, disagreement is likely to continue about how and why to “save” orangutans, and what “saving” even means – though this diversity need not be viewed as a bad thing. A lingering problem is that balancing conservation and development remains difficult.
