Once upon a time, orangutans (Pongo pymaeus) roamed thousands of miles across southern China and Southeast Asia. In the wild, today, they can only be found on the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra.

More than a hundred years ago, these "forest people" lived by the hundred thousands in the swampy coastal forests of Kalimantan and northern Sumatra; today they number less than 20,000.

Within the last decade alone, the population of orangutan in the wild has shrunk by 50 percent. In Sumatra it is estimated about 1,000 orangutans are lost each year, according to the United Kingdom-based Orangutan Foundation, while in Kalimantan the number is estimated to be much higher.

"At this rate, we predict that the orangutan would disappear from the wild in 10 to 20 years," the foundation said in a statement.

It's the classic race of survival between man and beast -- and here, it looks like man will once again come out the winner, with the orangutan's extinction as the price -- unless, an extraordinary effort is taken to protect the remaining population.

The problem is, even when left alone in the wild, orangutans are already vulnerable due to their limited reproductive cycle.

On average, females do not become sexually mature until the age of 15, and usually only reproduce once every seven years. A female orangutan usually has no more than three offspring during her lifetime.

People's fascination with exotic animals worsens the situation further. Many adult female orangutans are killed to capture their young, to be sold as pets or zoo animals. It is estimated that for every baby orangutan that reaches the market, another four or five orangutans die.

The orangutan's greatest threat, however, lies in their dwindling habitat, the forests, thanks to humans who ravage the land more and more for their own use without caring for the ecosystem. In Kalimantan and Sumatra, the forests are cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, illegal logging and gold mining.

The orangutan in fact need a large area to live in. According to the Orangutan Foundation, a female orangutan, for instance, needs at least 1,500 hectares of forestland to forage for insects and fruits, while a male needs up to 4,000 hectares.

The reduction of suitable habitat forces orangutan populations to go into smaller areas which cannot support their needs.

"The orangutan is on the verge of extinction because they have lost most of their habitat," Orangutan Foundation director Ashley Leiman said.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) together with the Orangutan Foundation launched a global program last year called the Great Ape Survival Project (GrASP) to protect the remaining population of orangutans, gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees.

There are only 23 countries in the world today where great apes survive, among them are Indonesia, the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria and Rwanda.

GrASP aims to establish a national Great Ape Survival Plan (GASP) in each of the 23 countries within two years. The funding for the plan will be collected by UNEP through government and private sponsors.

"There is an interdependency between the orangutan and the forest. We believe that the only way to save the orangutan is to save its habitat, the tropical forest," said Al Zaqie, Orangutan Foundation's representative in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, the Orangutan Foundation fights for the survival of the orangutan in the 3,040-square-kilometer Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan.

The foundation has also successfully acquired some 76,000 hectares of land for an orangutan reserve from a logging concessionaire in Central Kalimantan. The area is now called the Lamandau Animal Reserve and today the foundation manages an Orangutan Care Center for rehabilitation and health care.

Currently, the center takes care of 170 orangutans in various stages of rehabilitation in a facility meant only to cater for 40 orangutans. The orangutans treated there arrive as young as four months old to the age of 10 years. Often they need 24-hour care as usually they are severely traumatized from being kept as pets.

To date, there are 205 orangutans that have been rehabilitated and returned to the wild from Camp Leakey research center in Central Kalimantan, while another 16 has been set free in the Lamandau Animal Reserve.

Why do orangutans warrant protection? One of the reasons is, orangutans also help preserve the rain forest as they play an essential role as seed dispersers as they digest food and eliminate waste. They also act as pruners and aid regenerating plant growth by choosing green leaves and shoots to eat.

The whole ecosystem is constructed like a fragile house of cards, each card being man, flora, and fauna. If one of those components goes missing, the house of cards will tumble down.

More information about orangutans can be accessed through the Internet at www.orangutan.org, www.orangutan.org.uk, and www.unep.org/grasp.