Leuser Ecosystem Progress Report 2020-2021
The Leuser Ecosystem World Heritage Site can be found on the island of Sumatra, one of 17,508 islands found in the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia. Indonesia is home to over 300,000 wildlife species, and the Leuser Ecosystem is the last place on our planet where tigers, elephants and orangutans coexist.
Roughly three times the size of Yellowstone National Park, Leuser has a range of landscapes including 6.5 million acres of intact rainforest that allows it to harbor a diverse range of wildlife.
Unfortunately, Leuser faces multiple threats from human activity ranging from poaching to deforestation for palm oil production. Many of these threats stem from post-civil-war instability: fights over land and resource management, and illegal and commercial activities. Palm oil farming and production has been the leading cause of habitat loss, with over 37.5 million tons of palm oil being produced in Indonesia in 2016. That number has been creeping up each year since.
The repercussions? When natural land disappears, so do the animals that live off of and depend on that land’s natural resources.
For example, there were an estimated 1,647 elephants in the region in 1999. As of 2018, that number has plummeted to somewhere between 216 and 318 individuals remaining. Between 2015 and 2020 alone, at least 25 elephants were found murdered across the region by way of shooting, snares, poison, spears or electrocution.
Thankfully there is a lot that has been and can still be done to protect these species and their homes.
FKL Wildlife Protection Team rangers crossing a shallow river during patrol in the Leuser Ecosystem
Endangered Species of the Leuser Ecosystem
Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii)
Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis)
Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)
Helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil)
Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus)
The Leuser Ecosystem is a biodiversity hotspot, an important bird area, the last viable hope for Critically Endangered Sumatran rhino, elephant, orangutan and tiger, the largest contiguous forest tract remaining in Sumatra and one of the most important in southeast Asia.
Two major challenges in preventing the extinction of the remaining Critically Endangered elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans are the speed with which destruction is taking place and the size of the area to cover. Encroachment by oil palm plantations and settlements has been serious enough to fragment wildlife populations.
Progress in Protection 2020-2021
Global Conservation has been supporting the work of Forum Konservasi Leuser (FKL) to protect wildlife and their habitats in the Leuser Ecosystem, especially the proposed Bengkung Trumon Megafauna Sanctuary (BTMS). Our Global Park Defense program is being deployed to achieve "No Cut, No Kill" protection, in part via expanded ranger stations and patrols, UAV drones, satellite communication and remote monitoring.
Currently, 12 SMART Patrols cover 60% of the Leuser Ecosystem, equipped with satellite communications, survival equipment, and critical supplies. Forum Konservasi Leuser (FKL) Patrols target the areas at highest risk for forest and wildlife crime activities, especially areas with high value trees. Vital orangutan habitats within Gunung Leuser National Park are being documented by UAV drones. The video captured by the drones is invaluable for motivating community leaders and law enforcement to take action when threats are detected.
The FKL team with a fixed-wing drone.
While taking a landscape level conservation approach, FKL has always prioritized rhino protection due to the extreme risk of extinction for this Sumatran species and a zero-poaching rate has been maintained since inception.
As well as deploying ranger teams, FKL operates mobile monitoring units to gather intel on forest and wildlife crime and conducts monthly law enforcement operations with local authorities. They have dismantled illegal roads, busted logging syndicates and arrested poachers.
FKL rangers put their lives on the line to protect wildlife.
FKL also works on mitigating human-wildlife conflict -particularly relating to Sumatran elephants - through wildlife rescue and release teams, elephant corridor restoration, barrier construction and GPS collar monitoring of elephant herds. FKL has secured thousands of hectares of land and is undertaking historic restoration of forest cleared illegally for palm oil, seeing wildlife returning via camera traps.
A Community Patrol Team member plants a seedling in a restoration area. Image courtesy FKL.
BTMS, an area of intensive protection for FKL, spans 302,757 ha. Just over 77,000 ha of BTMS overlaps with the Gunung Leuser National Park. BTMS harbors all of the Leuser’s important megafauna species, including a particularly high density of Sumatran elephants. Sumatran rhinos are also returning to this area after being absent 20 years.
We hope eventually to link up the isolated elephant populations in the western parts of the sanctuary with those in the Bengkung valley and thus facilitate genetic exchange that has been absent for the last 25 years.
Poaching was rife throughout this area but this has been reduced by the deployment of FKL Wildlife Protection Teams (WPT). However poaching remains a threat along with human-wildlife conflict due to deforestation as a result of illegal settlement on the periphery and plantation development.
An FKL ranger documents and dismantles a snare set to capture wildlife.
FKL is developing urgent interventions (eg, constructing barriers between forest and plantations) as well as root-cause solutions (eg, removing illegal plantations, developing alternative community livelihoods and empowering the next generation of local conservationists) to protect forest from further encroachment and to solve the human-wildlife conflict crisis.
The BTMS is being patrolled and monitored by regular anti-poaching foot-patrols (Wildlife Protection Teams), drone missions and strategically located camera traps. Along with several other donors, Global Conservation have pledged to continue their support for the sanctuary – particularly for land purchases and for drone and camera technology.
FKL Wildlife Protection Team discovers an illegal camp, which was then dismantled. Image courtesy FKL.
FKL have GPS-collared 4 elephants across Leuser to monitor their ranging patterns. The patrols serve to protect the area, destroy snares and deter poachers while the monitoring allows us to detect forest loss and restoration and proactively mitigate human-elephant conflict. FKL are also working on more indirect but potentially more sustainable solutions to the problem of poverty-driven poaching, clearing and logging.
As well as establishing Community Patrol Teams, FKL are working on facilitating community training in organic farming and beekeeping as well as tour guide training and have enabled several community cooperatives to launch in beekeeping and sustainable wild honey collection as an alternative to land clearing and illegal forest and wildlife extraction.
A community patrol team surrounds a set of confiscated snares. Image courtesy FKL.
Our team also helped FKL organize a high school visit and field trip to Leuser where the students planted native trees in the Suaq Land Restoration Site. The students helped plant trees while learning about the economic and environmental benefits of the tree species that they planted.
Earlier this year, Global Conservation prompted researchers to add thermal cameras to their drones to detect heat signatures, a form of forest monitoring used to monitor animals. We also helped introduce drones to provide visual signs of animals, like nesting sites. These tools successfully enabled more land visibility which helped in preventing further habitat destruction.
Orangutan nest as seen from a drone. Image courtesy of Orangutan Nest Watch.
Success by the numbers 2020
3 rescues of Sumatran tigers from human-tiger conflict situations
7 Wildlife Protection Teams supported by Global Conservation in BTMS
55 patrol missions completed covering 3,481km of track
18 collaborative law enforcement operations supported by Global Conservation
8 forest crime perpetrators arrested and 3 sentenced to prison
1005 signs of Sumatran orangutans found, along with 657 signs of Malayan sunbear, 280 of Sumatran tiger, and 221 of Sumatran elephant
34 cases of poaching detected
24 poacher camps destroyed
9 snares dismantled
4 poachers intercepted
8 cases of forest encroachment totaling 33 hectares stopped
4 encroacher camps and 4 logging camps dismantled
60 cases of illegal logging activities found and 46.6 m³ of illegal timber confiscated
2 chainsaws, 1 timber processing machine, and 1 boat confiscated
1 illegal logger intercepted
27% decrease in forest crimes compared to 2 years ago, showing that presence on the ground has been successful
Unfortunately, despite efforts to patrol and protect this ecosystem, there are still illegal actions, human-wildlife conflicts, and threats to the land. As recently as July 2021, despite this species being protected under Indonesian law, a dead Sumatran elephant was found in a palm oil plantation. The elephant had been poisoned and the head was then removed along with the tusks. Thanks to quick action from the police, the perpetrators have been arrested and could face the maximum sentence under Indonesian law for their heinous crime.
This elephant was found dead in July 2021 with its tusks taken. It was likely poisoned. Photo courtesy FKL.
Success by the numbers, first half of 2021 (January-May)
8 Wildlife Protection Teams supported by Global Conservation in BTMS
34 patrol missions completed, covering 1,879km
295 signs of Sumatran orangutan found, along with 55 signs of Malayan sunbear, 99 of Sumatran tiger, and 28 of Sumatran elephant.
24 cases of poaching found
11 snares and traps dismantled
12 illegal camps destroyed
61 illegal logging cases found
7 forest encroachment cases found
15 collaborative law enforvement operations supported by Global Conservation
16 forest crime perpetrators encountered, still being investigated by police
161.7m³ of illegal timber seized
14 ha of forest encroachment stopped
500m of illegal road construction stopped
1 excavator seized, along with 1 perpetrator’s hut, 10 bags of stones, 1 truck, 1 boat, 1 outboard motor, and 2 motorized rickshaws
5,906 seedlings being nursed for forest restoration
500 seedlings planted at a restoration site in collaboration with the community
Investigating illegal timber in a sawmill.
In June 2021, FKL received information that there was a crowd of people watching an orangutan marooned in lone trees by the side of the road in Peunaron Village, Aceh Timur. The male orangutan seemed to be trapped in a tree, and was afraid to go down because so many people were watching.
FKL worked to disperse the crowd, and together with the Aceh BKSDA they monitored and observed the orangutan until midnight to ensure his safety. At dawn the next day, villagers said that they saw the orangutan crossing the road on the ground and heading back safely into the forest.
This is just one of many stories of destruction to wildlife that has been and continues to occur in this region. Additional funding is needed to provide the tools and resources necessary to further protect the Leuser Ecosystem. Consider contributing to the protection of this UNESCO World Heritage site here.
In June 2021, this orangutan was stranded in a lone tree, surrounded by palm oil plantations and a village. Image courtesy FKL.
More Resources
Google partnered with FKL and partner HAkA to produce a Google Voyager interactive experience on the Leuser Ecosystem and efforts of HAkA and FKL to protect it. This is a tool FKL uses regularly as part of their outreach, from local school visits to advocacy with political and community leaders.