The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature this month, despite decades of conservation efforts. We urgently need fresh strategies to counteract habitat loss and hunting, and to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Both species of Asia's only great ape (P. pygmaeus and the Sumatran orangutan, P. abelii) now face 'an extremely high risk of extinction'. Safeguarding protected areas and enforcing existing bans on orangutan killing are still important, but such efforts are insufficient in isolation (E. Meijaard et al. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1249, 29–44; 2012).

We need to maximize the conservation value of degraded lands and use an integrated, landscape-scale approach to reconcile economic development and biodiversity conservation. And we must promote sustainable management practices that are backed by rigorous, transparent certification mechanisms and that incorporate explicit economic valuation of the ecosystem services provided by orangutans and their habitats.

Crucially, success will also demand direct engagement and collaboration between conservationists and the mining, forestry and oil-palm industries.