Malaysia is inviting countries that buy its palm oil to adopt orangutans but leave them in their natural habitat in the Southeast Asian nation in a tweak of a plan that originally sought to send some abroad, local media reported.
In a scheme modeled on China's "panda diplomacy," Malaysia announced in May that it would send the great apes as gifts to palm oil-purchasing countries, sparking an outcry among conservationists.
Orangutans are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and have lost habitat to logging and agricultural expansion — particularly palm oil plantations.