Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra 2019-2020 Progress Report

Elephants are dwarfed by the vast expanse of forest in the Leuser Ecosystem.

Introduction and History

Global Conservation (GC) is working with Forum Konservasi Leuser (FKL) and HAkA (Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh) to protect the Leuser Ecosystem on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Leuser is the last place on earth where wild tigers, orangutans, elephants and rhinos coexist, and its 2.6 million hectares comprise one of the last remaining intact rainforests in all of Indonesia.

Unfortunately, since the end of Indonesia’s civil war, deforestation for illegal palm oil expansion has been decimating the Leuser Ecosystem. Consequently, the Leuser Ecosystem has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger. GC and FKL are slowing deforestation, stopping poachers, and restoring damaged forests.

FKL is restoring the Soraya area from illegal palm plantation to native forest with Global Conservation's support.

In 2018-2019 Global Conservation funded over $300,000 for the deployment of Global Park Defense to protect the Benkong-Trumon Megafauna Sanctuary (BTMS). BTMS is a 400,000-hectare tract of critical habitat at the core of the Leuser Ecosystem, home to endangered Sumatran tigers, rhinos, elephants, orangutans, and Asian bears. 

By protecting the habitat of these megafauna species, countless other biological treasures will be preserved: clouded leopards, hornbills and the largest flowers in the world are among the wonders that share this forest. 

Our primary goal in BTMS is to establish an effective and fully functioning SMART Patrol system with stronger patrol coverage and frequency, especially in the zones threatened with illegal logging and wildlife poaching, backed up by 24/7 surveillance of roads, trails and rivers against illegal logging and wildlife poaching, as well as illegal land clearing for palm oil plantations.

Cellular trail cameras, a crucial component of Global Park Defense, detect illegal activity and wildlife activity (here, a pig-tailed macaque, sun bears, and an Asian elephant) in the Leuser Ecosystem.

We are supporting 3 active FKL Patrols through training, rations and salary bonuses for milestone achievement in Park, Forest and Wildlife Protection. Government forestry officers are embedded with FKL Patrols to ensure interdiction, removal and arrests of perpetrators. Our work fortifies this area to effectively block further land grabs for palm oil and illegal forestry from the South in one of the most critical habitats and areas for connectivity of wildlife in Sumatra. 

FKL rangers rest during a long foot patrol.

2019-2020 Progress

Deforestation

We supported our partners, FKL and HAkA, to achieve a 40% reduction in deforestation in the Leuser Ecosystem, and a 67% reduction in poaching, since 2017. In the Leuser Ecosystem, deforestation claimed 5,395 hectares of forest in 2019, compared to 7,066 hectares in 2017. Total deforestation across Aceh province also declined during the same period. We are thrilled at the progress that FKL and HAkA have made on this front, and we look forward to a continuing decline in deforestation as we work toward No Cut, No Kill protection in Leuser.

In 2019, FKL rangers removed 11 logging camps from within Gunung Leuser National Park.

HAkA is the leading authority on deforestation monitoring in the Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh, using credible and cutting-edge remote sensing tools (e.g., LANDSAT 8 from NASA, SENTINEL 2 from ESA, Planet.com, and GFW Glad Alerts). FKL teams on the ground check and verify their remote findings. Two of HAkA’s senior GIS staff have received further training at Google headquarters and the World Resources Institute.

FKL and HAkA collate their ground-checking and remote sensing data, publicizing it every year in Banda Aceh and using it to instigate policy change. With the support of WRI's Global Forest Watch, HAkA GIS staff are training multiple government agencies in deforestation mapping and are supporting the Aceh government's request to set up their own forest monitoring situation room. Global Conservation is also supporting drone-based aerial surveillance.

Palm oil expansion is a major driver of deforestation in Sumatra. Here, FKL rangers destroy more than 500 illegal oil palm seedlings.

Anti-Poaching

In 2019, FKL:

• Completed 303 patrol missions along 20,000 km of track.
• Found 275 poaching cases, escorted 18 poachers out of the forest, destroyed 120 poacher camps and dismantled 288 snares/traps.
• Conducted 55 collaborative law enforcement operations with BKSDA, KPH (Forest Management Unit), the police, and on occasion, the army.  Nineteen cases went to court.
• Conducted 9 wildlife crime investigations and joint raids/arrests with MoEF’s Law Enforcement Division and the police.
• Increased Cellular Trailcams to over 30 across BTMS.

Wildlife snares after being dismantled by FKL rangers.

Poaching cases have decreased dramatically since 2017 as patrol and enforcement efforts have intensified. Fewer than half as many poaching incidents were recorded and only about a third as many snares dismantled in 2019 compared to 2018. In 2019, FKL rangers prevented 275 poaching cases, destroyed 120 illegal camps, and dismantled 288 snares and traps.

 FKL rangers with snares that were removed from the forest. Snares like these are indiscriminate killers that will trap any animal that passes through.

Most of those traps were targeting small animals like porcupines and endangered pangolins, but more than 10% were targeting large endangered species like tigers and sun bears. Impressively, FKL have maintained a zero-poaching rate for rhinos since inception, and no rhinos have been poached in the Leuser Ecosystem since the early 1990s. Further, no elephants have been poached in the BTMS since 2013. 

The remains of a poached hornbill were found by FKL rangers.

FKL currently manages 26 Wildlife Protection Teams that patrol the Leuser Ecosystem - the largest number of any Indonesian managed NGO. Within the BTMS, there are 13 conservation teams in total. These are made up of: 

• 7 Wildlife Protection Teams
• 2 Restoration Units
• 2 Community Patrols
• 1 Elephant Protection Team
• 1 Research Station Team

Of these, GC funds 2 Wildlife Protection Teams, 2 Community Patrols, and 1 Restoration Unit.

This success is in large part due to FKL’s Mobile Monitoring Units. These are vehicle-based ranger teams that consistently patrol and provide information about illegal activity, helping law enforcement to intervene and stop forest and wildlife crimes. 

Poachers arrested by FKL rangers in the Benkong-Trumon Megafauna Sanctuary in April 2020.

The data supporting these successes is meticulously collected. In 2016, FKL and HAkA designed a sophisticated database system for SMART patrols, monitoring, and enforcement data, operated by a dedicated team. They collect a vast quantity of data: patrol and monitoring teams submit monthly reports that include verifiable GPS tracks of the distance they cover, and geotagged and timestamped photos of every snare, trap, poacher, and wildlife sign that they find.

FKL rangers destroy an illegal logging camp in the Leuser Ecosystem.

Among other conclusions, these data show that as FKL progressively increases patrol coverage, they are finding fewer snares. This suggests that their boots on the ground have the intended deterrent effect on poaching.

Wildlife trap before being destroyed by FKL rangers.

An FKL ranger uses a GPS to mark the location of a snare. Afterward, he removed the trap to prevent it from harming wildlife.

Forest Restoration

FKL works with local communities to remove illegal crops like palm oil and rubber and restore the land with native trees. In 2019, FKL removed more than 11,000 oil palm trees, totaling an area of more than 130 hectares. They successfully restored 357 hectares of forest and planted more than 70,000 native trees. Through strategic land acquisition, they have secured another 971 hectares for conservation across the Leuser Ecosystem. Global Conservation also helped purchase the entire 12km riverfront across from Gunung Leuser National Park.

With GC’s support, FKL has been able to restore a major river basin in the Bengkung Trumon Megafauna Sanctuary through land acquisition and forest restoration interventions. FKL has been working to prevent further conversion that would significantly degrade biodiversity and ecosystem services. FKL will continue to manage this area sustainably in collaboration with the local community. FKL is working to secure more land for conservation and reforestation.

A member of the Soraya restoration team looks at an oil palm that has been destroyed so that native forest can be restored.

Conservation

FKL has achieved the designation of a Sumatran Rhino sanctuary, the result of a collaboration between NGO’s, provincial and district governments, and palm oil company PT Aloer Timur. This sanctuary will provide a captive breeding facility for critically endangered Sumatran rhinos, of which there are only 30 and 100 left in the wild. Rhino experts believe that the species will go extinct without intervention. Five rhinos will be captured from the wild and placed in the new sanctuary, which will be opened in 2021.

Research

FKL has collared another elephant, bringing the total number of elephant herds being tracked to three. The information from these collars will help FKL teams intercept potential human-wildlife conflict and better understand elephant movements within the Leuser ecosystem.

FKL is also currently working on trail camera image analysis for all of Leuser. 

FKL Director Rudi Putra on National Geographic

 

 

 

 

 

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