The Leuser Ecosystem is the last place on earth where Sumatran orangutans, elephants, tigers, sun bears, and rhinos exist together in the wild. However, although Leuser is protected under Indonesian law, human development and deforestation threaten this incredibly diverse ecosystem and the well-being of millions of people who depend on it.
Recently, Global Conservation partnered with the Rainforest Action Network to support their work against conflict palm oil in the Leuser. We strategically invested $100,000 in RAN's work, which complements our Global Park Defense deployment against illegal activity that threatens forests in the Leuser.
We chatted with Gemma Tillack, Forest Policy Director at RAN, to discuss their work in this last forest frontier of Indonesia.
There are so many things. First, it’s a place that I love – it’s under my skin. I think about it when I go to sleep at night. But also – as a global society, we need to protect what’s left of nature. The Leuser is the jewel of Southeast Asia: it has an exceptional array of species that congregate there, from orangutans to tigers to rhinos to the myriad of frogs, reptiles, and snakes that people don’t even know about. I’m also inspired by the Acehnese people and their culture, and the fact that they have been on the front lines protecting their forest for generations. They’re the main reason that Leuser has not been destroyed by large-scale commodity development yet.
Leuser is teetering on a precipice: will it be protected and maintain the value that it’s providing for local communities, for nature, and for the global community as a carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, or will it go the same direction as the forests all around it in Sumatra, destroyed rapidly over the past two decades? Leuser is an exceptional place, and it’s at a crossroads: will it be lost forever, or can we get a critical mass of people and companies rallying behind its protection?
"Leuser is teetering on a precipice: will it be protected and maintain the value that it’s providing for local communities, for nature, and for the global community as a carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, or will it go the same direction as the forests all around it in Sumatra, destroyed rapidly over the past two decades?"
The ecosystem is threatened by a number of different drivers. At RAN, we focus on threats to the lowland rainforests and peatlands, which are at risk of being converted to oil palm plantations by palm oil companies or small-scale land speculators. Leuser is an area that’s afforded legal protection by the government, but there are large swaths of forest within it that have a weaker status. Those areas are allocated for conversion to palm oil or logging for pulp and paper. Increasingly, there’s allocations for large energy projects, for dams, for power facilities, and a large networks of roads. If they go ahead, these projects will destroy one of the most unique qualities of this place: that it’s such a large, contiguous area of pristine forests, one intact ecosystem.
Palm oil plantations in Indonesia (foreground) with palm oil refineries spewing smoke in the background.
At RAN, we’ve been working on forest protection and supply chain reform issues for a few decades. In the last six or seven years we’ve really focused on driving impacts in the Leuser Ecosystem. Both GC and RAN are focusing on making Leuser a household name: it’s such an exceptional forest landscape that people need to know about, understand the threats to, and take action to protect.
GC have been supporting local organizations in the Leuser for some years. In the last few years they’ve also started to support RAN, and that’s enabling us to continue our efforts to convince companies and brands to adopt and implement sustainable palm oil practices. GC’s support enables us to document where forests are falling in the Leuser and all over Indonesia. We then package up that evidence for high-profile media outlets to alert the public about the impacts of palm expansion. GC’s support also helps our team of negotiators dialogue directly with the major corporations that are connected to deforestation, focusing on major brands like Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Mars, Mondelēz, and so on.
Global Conservation's support is enabling RAN to continue their efforts to convince companies and brands to adopt and implement sustainable palm oil practices, to document where forests are falling in Indonesia and to launch media campaigns about the destruction, and to send negotiators to dialog directly with the major corporations that are connected to deforestation.
RAN came together 35 years ago because we realized that it wasn’t really government decisions that were destroying forests. Rather, it was the big corporations that were setting market practices, and were financing local companies to expand into indigenous territories in the last forest frontiers. We saw that there was a very big gap in the NGO world: people weren’t focusing on market intervention. We choose to focus on driving change through pressuring major banks and brands, and to do that in a way that we hope has lasting impacts on the ground for communities and for forests.
A truck carries palm fruits, which are used to produce palm oil, through a palm oil plantation.
The unrelenting pressure on major brands to understand their role in the destruction of the Leuser has been key. We’ve turned the tide: some of the biggest brands have dedicated time, resources, and their leverage to Leuser protection initiatives. We’re now seeing Unilever and PepsiCo sitting at a table with the government, with their palm oil suppliers, with local NGOs, to design a green growth plan for Aceh that has forest protection and improvement of palm oil practices at its core. I think that’s definitely been the biggest contribution.
That buy-in from major corporations then influences the actions of the palm oil companies that have these forests under their control. We’ve been exposing companies that are clearing forests and encouraging them to stop, adopt a forest-friendly policy, and to come into line with global expectations. We’re now starting to see a shift among the individual palm oil companies that are operating within the boundaries of the region.
With COVID, we’ve seen an increase in forest clearance by a number of the palm oil companies. We’ve been deploying RAN’s field investigators and documenting that increase in clearance. We’ve also seen that there is a split emerging within the palm oil sector. On one hand, there are a number of companies that are using this as a time to really go rogue – to take advantage of the decrease in government enforcement, as government agencies can’t really get out into the field.
On the other hand, there are other companies that have cleared forests in the past, but have, through RAN’s campaigns, been kicked out of supply chains or lost contracts with major palm oil refineries due to their practices. Because of that, this year we’ve also seen a growing number of commitments to set aside forests by producers who want to regain their access to the market. It has been an interesting year, because there’s that dichotomy: some companies are clearing more forests, while others are for the first time writing commitments to protect forests. They want to secure their place in the market and their role in a multi-stakeholder conservation outcome for the Leuser.
Leuser's old-growth rainforests capture massive amounts of carbon that are released when the forests are destroyed.
The Leuser touches all of us. It may be the wonder of children at one day getting to the forest, getting to see an orangutan mom and a baby in a tree, dreaming of watching a herd of elephants roam past them in a river. It’s a place that captures the imagination, a place where nature thrives. People need nature. The Leuser is a landscape of hope, a landscape where real people are doing real work to protect nature for the future. There are many ways for people around the world to be part of that change, and to be part of making this a place that one day they can visit. If we work together, one day it will still be there for them to enjoy when it’s possible.
But the other point is that climate change is here. We know that we need to make massive changes to stabilize emissions and limit warming to a maximum of 1.5°C. We cannot actually limit climate change and we cannot stabilize the way our society operates without the protection of this landscape.
The Leuser is a massive carbon store, full of old-growth forests and carbon-rich peatlands, but it can also be converted into a massive carbon bomb if its destruction continues. Indonesia is in the top ten largest emitters of carbon on the planet, and 80% of those emissions come from clearing forests or developing peatlands. So protecting the Leuser really is a key part of Indonesia curbing its emissions, and it’s also a huge part of the global community being able to stabilize the climate.
It’s not a question of: Can we save the Leuser? It’s: We must save the Leuser, how can we? What can we do next, in order to really accelerate the positive outcomes for this place, the millions of local community members that rely on it, and the global climate?
"Protecting the Leuser really is a key part of Indonesia curbing its emissions, and it’s also a huge part of the global community being able to stabilize the climate. It’s not a question of: Can we save the Leuser? It’s: We must save the Leuser, how can we?"
There are millions of community members that rely on the Leuser Ecosystem, so they will fight tooth and nail to protect their forests. There are strong, savvy local organizations that are doing the work in the field to protect the landscape. And there are billions of people around the world that love forests, that love nature, and that are connected to this landscape through their consumption of products and ultimately their use of palm oil. There are so many entities that are involved in this movement and that have something at stake. I think it’s just a matter of time until we build to a critical mass where we have a global alliance of funders, philanthropic organizations like GC, community-based organizations, environment-based organizations, and international allies that are really championing this landscape.
There is this growing movement called “Love the Leuser”, at lovetheleuser.org. The first thing they can do is go there, find out about the landscape, and share it on social media so other people learn the name and why the Leuser matters.
Secondly, we are still pressuring companies and these big brands to do their part to protect the Leuser. People can visit our website and take action by sending a message to Mars and Mondelēz demanding more interventions to protect the Leuser ecosystem. Anyone can do that, and it will help us keep the successes coming.
People should be informed and should make decisions to minimize their footprint – those decisions are really critical, so I don’t want to undermine the importance of taking action there. Palm oil, though, is the most widely used vegetable oil on the planet. It’s not going away. Our strategy and our theory of change hasn’t been to boycott it, it’s been to transform the way that it’s produced to ensure that it does not result in forest loss, it does not result in peatland development, and it does not result in human rights violations. For us, our goal has been to define what responsible palm oil practice is, and to build a movement behind that.
Unfortunately, there are a number of certification systems that offer “sustainable palm oil” claims that cannot yet be trusted. We are still working to reform certification systems so that people can trust those labels. We’re not there yet, but I think that with ongoing consumer action, with ongoing pressure on the brands, we can get to a day where palm oil isn’t destroying the Leuser and every other forest that’s left on the planet.
"Palm oil... is the most widely used vegetable oil on the planet. It’s not going away. Our strategy and our theory of change hasn’t been to boycott it, it’s been to transform the way that it’s produced to ensure that it does not result in forest loss, it does not result in peatland development, and it does not result in human rights violations."
All photos by Paul Hilton. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
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