The pet trade is ongoing. In order for a baby or juvenile orangutan to be captured the mother must be killed first.

Field experts say that on average, two adults are killed in order to successfully secure one baby. Typically, up to four or even five babies are shipped together in a single box, in hopes that one will survive the long and tiring journey.

From December 2002 to June 2003, 40 orangutans were smuggled out of Indonesia to Taiwan, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. The route typically begins in Central Kalimantan where they are shipped down river on barges carrying logs. Eventually, these orphans end up in Jakarta from where they are shipped out to Thailand, Singapore, or Malaysia. The “traders” who are responsible for the smuggling of orangutans are extremely well organized, have international networks in place, as well as all the necessary Indonesian contacts in order to successfully get the orangutans out of the country via their main international airport. Indonesians that are given or buy orangutans are usually upper-class, well educated, and seldom ignorant of the law. Many are police and military officers.

It is estimated that about 1,000 baby orangutans were smuggled to Taiwan from Kalimantan on Borneo between 1985 and 1990 and sold as exotic pets. This accounts for at least a 10% decline in the wild population (this percentage includes all those that were killed or died in the smuggling and poaching process; a conservative estimate of over 3,000 animals)! The reason for this surge in orangutans as pets was a result of a popular Taiwanese television program that featured a live orangutan as the perfect pet and companion. As a result the demand was met through smuggling and poaching. Eventually the cute and cuddly orangutans grow up and become unmanageable. At about this same time there were also 23 orangutans smuggled to Japan using hand carried luggage. In Europe an orangutan sells for about $50,000. Many have suffered from neglect, poor nutrition and serious health problems such as tuberculosis and hepatitis B. A few lucky ones were returned to Indonesian rescue centers for rehabilitation and reintroduction into the wild.

Humans have also contributed to the orangutans decline in population by logging their natural habitat. Indonesia contains ten per cent of the world's remaining tropical forests. Over 70 per cent of Indonesia's original frontier forests have been lost. From 1996 to 2004, illegal logging has destroyed 5 million acres a year! Orangutans are sensitive to selective logging that makes passage through the trees canopy difficult or near impossible. And when logging becomes intensive in any area the orangutans disappear altogether.

Large parks have been set aside as reserves, but this has not stopped, for now, illegal logging operations within them. Excellent organization of illegal logging, along with under-funded, tired law enforcement, lack of prosecution for those caught, government corruption have encourged these practices to continue. Worldwide pressure for better forest management has only just begun to have an effect on government policies. It is important that this pressure is not lessened.

One of the most illegally logged trees in Indonesia continues to be Indonesian Ramin. Some of the products made from this wood include dowels, baby cribs, billiard cues, curtain rods, broom handles, window blinds, parquet floors, plywood, veneer, paneling, particle board, moldings, and decorative furniture.

As of August 2001, Indonesia notified the IUCN that all species of Ramin should be listed on Appendix III of CITES to help protect orangutan habitat.As a result of this listing, the United States USDA now requires a special permit in order to import Ramin products; however this has not stopped its importation. Millions of dollars of wood products made from the Indonesian Ramin are illegally exported to the US by Malaysian companies each year, using fraudulent "Bills of Lading" stating the wood is grown in Malaysia, when in fact it was illegally taken from within national parks on Borneo and Sumatra, directly impacting orangutan habitat.

The USA government was petitioned in March of 2004 to try