Environmental Liability Could Help Remedy Biodiversity Loss
![Pongo the Stolen Orangutan, credit Jaclyn Schwanke Pongo the Stolen Orangutan, credit Jaclyn Schwanke](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/images/blog/pongo-stolen-orangutan-how-law-can-heal-credit-jaclyn-schwanke.jpg?itok=BBx48v7e)
In a rural community in North Sumatra, Indonesia, an environmental NGO recently filed one of the first natural resource liability suits for illegal resource exploitation against a zoo holding critically endangered animals. Extending the “polluters-pay” principle, the case has the potential to set a global precedent for holding illegal wildlife traffickers accountable for repairing the harm they cause—not only to individual plants and animals, but also to species survival, ecosystem health, and human well-being.