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Oil-Palm Plantation Roadshows Performance Report Final
August 13, 2009
Oil-Palm Plantation Roadshows Performance Report Final
Statement of Need
There is an urgent need for conservation action in order to retain viable wild populations of orangutans. Once widespread throughout the forests of Southeast Asia, they are now confined to two islands in Indonesia and Malaysia, where two genetically distinct species exist: the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (P. pygmaeus). Between 1950-2000, 40% of Indonesia’s forests were cleared, reducing ground cover to 98 million hectares (FWI/GFW, 2002). Forest cover in Sumatra was reduced by 61% from 1985-1997 due to logging, infrastructure development, internal migration, and plantation development (McConkey, 2005), and there are now less than 900,000 hectares of orangutan habitat left standing on the island, restricted to the northernmost provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra (Singleton et al., 2004). Habitat loss has not been restricted to private land, as vast tracts of the Gunung Leuser National Park, part of the UNESCO “Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra” World Heritage Site, which is also located within the Leuser Ecosystem (considered the last stronghold of the Sumatran orangutan), have also been degraded or converted and lost to plantation agriculture. Populations have declined from an estimated 12,770 in 1994, to an estimated 6,624 in 2008, with the downward trend continuing to this day (Singleton et al., 2004; Wich et al., 2008). Thus the Sumatran orangutan is now classified as Critically Endangered and listed as one of the top 25 most endangered primates in the world (IUCN, 2008).
Introduction
Experts in the field of orangutan conservation agree that the conversion of high conservation value forests to monoculture oil palm plantations is now the most urgent threat to the orangutans’ continued existence in the wild (Buckland, 2005; Nellemann et al., 2007). As land is cleared for development, this can cause wildlife, including orangutans, to be forced into sparse forest fragments with poor resource availability and low carrying capacity (Nellemann et al, 2007), and/or crossing through or becoming isolated on lands developed by humans, which can result in crop-raiding or unintentional crop damage. Perceived as a threat to both the community and profits, these endangered and protected species, flagships for the conservation of rainforests, are considered as pests and are killed or captured and sold into the pet trade (Brown and Jacobson, 2005; Nijman, 2005; Shepherd et al., 2005).
Thus it was the goal of the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC) to initiate the Plantation Roadshows Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Programme to enhance the engagement of local communities in conservation activities in orangutan habitat areas and stimulate community-led solutions to human-orangutan conflict issues. The acceleration of further plantation development has dramatically increased incidents of direct conflict between humans and orangutans (Yuwono et al, 2007, Husson et al, 2002), resulting in substantial economic losses in areas bordering protected areas (Hill 1997, Naughton-Treves et al, 1998). However the assumption often made by farmers: that orangutans enter plantations in order to raid crops for food, is a misconception, as in actuality it is more likely that due to decreased habitat availability the animals are often obliged to cross through these lands to move between isolated forest fragments.
Executive Summary
The roadshow programme took place in 18 villages adjacent to orangutan habitat located in the Langkat and Pak-Pak Barat districts of the North Sumatra province of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. This involved a series of screenings of targeted conservation films focusing on the orangutan and the destruction of its habitat, with the screening and distribution of a specialised conflict mitigation training film for orangutan encounters in plantations. Active and passive techniques to mitigate conflict were also introduced and demonstrated, so that local people better understand the issues and are able to implement the techniques which are safe for both orangutans and people. The roadshow was also accompanied by interactive focus group discussions, the collection of data regarding local communities’ attitudes towards conservation and their environment through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, and complementary outreach activities such as educational exhibitions.
In total 1,694 people participated in the programme, with over 2,500 reached through general education and awareness efforts and materials distributed. It is apparent that those involved in the training were better prepared to coexist with their animal neighbours, through an improved perception of orangutans and also an increased ability to deal with any problems in a humane, nonlethal manner. Also through the more generalized environmental educational aspect of the initiative, they gained better knowledge and awareness about the importance of protecting orangutans and their forest homes.
Read full report by downloading the Oil-Palm Plantation Roadshows Performance Report Final in PDF Version.
Gunung Leuser Ecotourism Development Programme: Progress Report 1
June 17, 2009
During the period of January-March 2009, the Sumatran Orangutan Ecotourism Development Project focused primarily on the preparation and implementation of tour guide training. It is crucial that the guides have a high level of knowledge on the forest, as well as associated conservation issues, so that they can pass on this information to national and international visitors, as well as their local communities.
However, previous to this programme there was very little educational value to the Bukit Lawang (BL) experience, with tourist guides not holding much information themselves on the orangutans and their forest homes. Thus the OIC has initiated a series of training sessions that serve to disseminate and instill effective and ethical interpretive guiding to members of HPI, the local guide association, which administers operating licenses for both Bukit Lawang and the Tangkahan area (a nearby site which also borders the Gunung Leuser National Park, most well-known for hosting an ex-captive Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis) population used in forest trekking and tourism, as well as Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) rangers, whom all visitors both foreign and domestic must have accompany them in order to enter the forest.
The training programme itself consists of four modules, covering various issues including:
- 1. Ecotourism;
- 2. Conservation Education Training;
- 3. Search and Rescue / First Aid;
- 4. Publication and Documentation.
This, along with subsequent improved enforcement of national park guidelines will help ensure the health and safety of the orangutans and other wildlife in the park (as well as the visitors themselves), whilst adding to local community knowledge through the capacity building nature of the training. Thereafter they will be better able to serve the tourism industry, resulting in visitors becoming more informed themselves on the orangutan conservation situation, as well as that of rainforests in general.
Without these crucial factors of maintaining responsible visitor/guide behaviour in the forest, as well as imparting education onto those visitors, the site loses any resemblance to an ecotourism destination and instead becomes a wildlife tourism centred operation. Such tourism is not sustainable for wildlife, the GLNP, nor the local community and their livelihoods; thus it is paramount that programmes such as this take place and the region brought up to standard with other great ape ecotourism sites.
For complete information about Gunung Leuser Ecotourism Development Programme: Progress Report 1, please download the report on PDF file.
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