An Australian property developer is threatening the welfare of a vital animal rehabilitation centre and wildlife sanctuary!

Australian expat Rick Cameron wants to build a hotel on Marak Island (off the coast of Sumatra) – a move which directly threatens the world's largest gibbon and siamang rehabilitation-and-release project. Cameron has made his money primarily through the surfing and tourism industry in West Sumatra and Mentawai ( http://www.mentawai.com ). Now, after some years of silence, he has returned to menace Kalaweit's rehabilitation-and-release project on Marak Island, pressuring the project to collaborate with him so that he can build a high-end tourist resort on the island. Kalaweit cannot accept such a situation, as this kind of tourism development is completely incompatible with a primate rehabilitation-and-release program.

In addition, Cameron's past activities indicate that he plans to market this destination aggressively to surfers and divers. There is no guarantee that proper controls will be imposed on this activity. The seabed around Marak Island is rare in that it is still pristine, and large-scale commercial tourism in this marine environment will cause irreparable damage to a fragile ecosystem.

This is not Cameron's first attempt to push the rehabilitation-and-release project off Marak Island because of Kalaweit's refusal to collaborate with him.

Kalaweit has been working on Marak Island since 2003, protecting its wildlife from loggers, hunters and hotel investors. This island wildlife sanctuary protects over 130 gibbons and siamangs, some of which have now been released into their natural habitat on the island . Over the years the project has developed a strong relationship with both the island community and authorities. Agreements have been reached with each individual family owning rights to the coconut trees on the island, as well as the village responsible for the island and the local authorities. Even the governor of West Sumatra has shown his support, personally visiting the gibbon and siamang project on Marak Island.

Rick Cameron claims that he can rent the island from a certain individual. This is impossible as, under Indonesian law, the island is owned by the Republic of Indonesia and cannot be owned by a private individual. In fact, this person, who does not live on the island or even near the coast of Sumatra, simply holds limited plantation rights and cannot rent out the island as a whole. Kalaweit has expressed its willingness to discuss the status of the island in front of an Indonesian court of law, but this invitation has been rejected by Cameron.

We are extremely anxious about Cameron's future actions as he has threatened Kalaweit's security in the past and continues to menace the project. His reputation shows him to be a disreputable man with a dubious past !

Feel free to Google “Rick Cameron Mentawai” to read several interesting articles illustrating this man's dangerous potential – it's even more interesting if you are able to read Indonesian !

The petition, below, will be handed over to the addressee and to the regional authority.

Aim of the Petition

Addressee

You have offered to give five hectares to Kalaweit. This could be interpreted as a generous gesture … if it were not for the fact that the siamangs that Kalaweit has already released on Marak Island do not live on these five hectares! This means that the tourists that you will introduce to Marak Island will be violating siamang habitat, destroying all the work that Kalaweit has managed to do. Contact between humans and released primates is enormously detrimental to the animals' welfare and their environment. It may also pose a very real risk to human safety.

Moreover, the seabed of Marak Island is still pristine, which is rare. Despite your best intentions, your tourists will damage this site, even if you say that their activities will be monitored.

The world's largest gibbon and siamang rehabilitation project has been established on Marak Island since 2003, and Kalaweit, a non-profit organisation, has spent years building a constructive relationship with the local community and investing valuable resources in the project itself. How does your conscience allow you to prevent Kalaweit from doing its valuable work? Haven't you already made enough profits? Can't you take your tourists to another island, which might welcome this development without endangering an established, successful rehabilitation project?

If you had any sense of morality, you wouldn't attack an association which is trying to survive and work for a good cause – and with significantly fewer financial resources than you have. Profits should not be more important than the worthy efforts of a project like Kalaweit, especially to someone like you, Mr. Cameron, who has already met with so much success in your businesses. In fact, you might find that such a move is detrimental to your profits, as concerned travellers from around the world boycott such a development and any business associated with it or its investors.

We know that you have no legal or moral rights on this island, and that even the local people from the village of Nagari Sungai Pinang are against this development. If you genuinely feel that Kalaweit is in the wrong, stop threatening us with your mafia-style methods. Instead, bring a legal action against us so that the courts can decide. We won't bow to verbal harassment or physical intimidation. Don't hurt the animals of Marak Island, or the people who work for them !