Some background and more on GLNP replanting!

Since 1982, a transmigration project in northern Sumatra, supported by the Asian Development Bank, has been encroaching on the Gunung Leuser National Park, a major area of focus for the OIC. Development plans were incompatible with forestry policy, and rapidly resulted in the expansion of oil palm plantations inside the boundaries of the protected area. The transmigration project, in combination with community plantation developments, has enhanced business investment in the region. Subsequently, the area of land under cultivation with oil palms has expanded rapidly in the Langkat regency.

The on-site nursery in Besitang

One of the main priorities of forestry policy-making is forest rehabilitation programmes. This sort of policy had its formal beginnings in what was called the National Forest Rehabilitation Movement, also known in Indonesia as the GERHAN/GNHRL. The programme was started by former President Megawati Soekarno Putri, and was later continued as the Gerakan Indonesia Menanam program (Indonesia planting movement), which was inaugurated by the current President, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, in 2007. The replanting program calls for fast replanting in order to offset the damage already done to Indonesia's forests, (which are being destroyed at a rate of 1.6 million hectares per year, equating to 3 hectares per minute). To support major national programmes such as this, stakeholders from all relevant sectors must be engaged and become part of the solution, including local and national government officials, industry members such as logging companies and plantation management groups, and the local people living alongside the forests.

The oil palm trees in the background are the remaining 100 hectares of illegal trees in the national park that we are still seeking funding to remove and replant with indigenous forest species

Replanting programmes in Indonesia thus need to be implemented to restore critical degraded land and counter this rapid level of deforestation in Indonesia; therefore the OIC embarked upon a large-scale forest replanting project being in the Besitang region of the Gunung Leuser National Park. We have just in the last few months signed a 5-year extendable MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the national park, so many of our programmes are done in conjunction with GLNP officials.

Around four million people living in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra depend on the 25 million hectare Leuser Ecosystem (which contains the one million hectare GLNP) for ecological services such as the provision of water for consumption and irrigation, soil fertility, flood control, and climate regulation.

The OIC programme, sponsored by Lush, Musim Mas, and now with contributions made from the Rainforest Site (Link to the Rainforest site), serves to rehabilitate the park through the reforestation of degraded land in the park buffer zone. This is a local community development project aimed at undoing the damage caused through large-scale conversion of national park forest into plantation agriculture by the management group PT. Putri Hijau and PT. Rapala, amongst other smaller offenders. In addition to forest rehabilitation, the project provides sustainable alternative livelihood schemes for local people living adjacent to this area, thus they will not only gain from having the forests regrown (and therein a return of the water supply previously lost to the high rate of water absorption by oil palms), but will also benefit as a community through training and agroforestry schemes.

It's nearly a desert out there, but with the programme ongoing soon again it will be forest capable of supporting rich levels of biodiversity!

As the ecosystem is restored, local people benefit from increased levels of soil, water, and mineral retention, increased plant pollination and pest control from forest fauna and flora, flood and fire prevention, carbon storage, etc. This helps local people as they benefit from these ecosystem services, and in the process biodiversity levels are maintained and, over time, increase. We also work closely with local government bodies to establish a program of continuous monitoring and rehabilitation, as well as law enforcement initiatives to ensure long-term sustainability.

The local protector of the off-site nursery!

:P

Palm Oil Roadshows

Indonesia and Malaysia account for about 85% of the world’s production of palm oil, with demand and therein supply rising each year; with Indonesia overtaking Malaysia as the world's number one producer (link) . Ideal land for oil palm plantations unfortunately happens to be land once covered by lowland forest, the habitat preferred by orangutans and countless other species (high conservation value forest - HCVF).

The land clearing and development necessary to create an oil palm plantation severely alters the ecosystem, so that most species both plant and animal can no longer live in these areas.
As is becoming more and more common, orangutans are entering oil palm plantations (and other human developments) searching for food, causing damage to plants and eating the fruit. This results in a high level of human-wildlife conflict, as the plantation is concerned with maintaining its profits, which may be lessened by orangutans and other wildlife raiding food crops. The cause of this conflict is the rapid loss of the biodiversity-rich tropical rainforest that serves as ranging/foraging habitat for the species living within.

Rather than trying to go into deeper detail on the problems with palm oil here - I recommend reading:

1. The previously referenced report written by Helen Buckland, SOS's UK Director, The Oil for Ape Scandal, available from: here

2. Eye on Aceh's 'The 'Golden' Crop? Palm Oil in Post-Tsunami Aceh' available from:
here

The SOS-OIC has therefore started the Palm Oil Plantation Roadshow Initiative, in conjunction with The Great Ape Film Initiative (GAFI), and therein Films4Conservation (http://www.films4.org/) and the work of Patrick Rouxel (Patrick Rouxel), along with one of our regular partner NGOs, the Orang Utan Republik Initiative (OUREI).

The objectives of the project are as follows:

• To alleviate human-orangutan conflicts on oil-palm and rubber plantation estates
through the distribution of a training film targeted at plantation workers,
combined with workshops and focus groups.

• Through the use of the film ( some of which can be viewed in full at Cockroach Productions), in conjunction with workshops, change the perception of orangutans held within the palm oil industry

• Use education to improve the prospects of a sustainable industry and the survival of orangutans in expanding agricultural landscapes.

• To provide information on forest loss and degradation, and to examine the perceptions of local communities through visualization of the issues.

• To gather data on the attitudes of local communities towards human-orangutan conflict, forest degradation and conservation issues through focus group discussions, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

• To gather data on the scale of human-orangutan conflicts in plantation estates surrounding orangutan habitat areas.

• To make environmental films available to audiences in great ape range states through distribution of film copies to relevant stakeholders

• To introduce and promote “mobile environmental cinema” to local forest and agricultural communities.

• To expand the capacity of field educators to communicate crucial messages about human-orangutan conflict

Roadshows are being conducted in North Sumatra, primarily visiting oil palm and rubber plantations. The schedule of activities includes screening top-quality conservation films produced in local language, conducting mitigation workshops, and focus-group discussions and debates to try and better understand the conflict from the perspective of the local community themselves.

In terms of what we teach at plantations - well, it's all very new, currently being tested
material. Former SOS employee and now consultant, PHd student Gail Angela Campbell-Smith, is the only person conducting research on human-orangutan conflict; and we have been spreading her devised tactics - using a cannon like apparatus that only makes a loud bang to scare orangutans away (no projectiles!), spreading nets that have been soaked in chili oil across fruit trees, and using other noise making tools to frighten orangutans away (which has actually proven rather effective, and easy to do since many people stay inside the plantations and can intercept orangutans).

Also whenever people encounter orangutans in plantations we tell them to contact the
government (of which we've been given permission to give personal contact details of an official in the nature conservation department in Indonesia), and/or the Sumatran Orangutan Society, or also our friends at the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP).


In addition to information from Gail's research, I have spoken with other farmers (one in Tangkahan at last week's conservation camp (a post soon to follow!) who said he has orangutans in his area that occasionally raid his crops. And it's somewhat surprising the level to which people CAN be largely tolerant of these losses from orangutans. A lot of people like and respect orangutans for being closely related to us, and so long as they don't become destitute themselves they co-exist with the orangutans. Though for how long, and how many of the total people on the island are tolerant, unknown.



Ultimately though orangutans living in areas that have become too far isolated in areas of human development, with no forest corridor present to return to the larger forest blocks, are most likely going to have to be moved if they are to survive into the future. So the solution is to get them away from people, which is not only going to be very costly, but also how does one safely move a 150 or so kg adult male orangutan? Or even a 70kg female orangutan for that matter (not much easier!)? And also where do we move them to, with forests in Sumatra shrinking by the day?

So, again, it's a very new field and there is not a simple solution. Well, there is - stop cutting down all the forests and/or planting crops so close to them. But... that's not really simple either (a good time to remind ourselves that if we lived on farms and something were negatively affecting our productivity, how would we respond? / also, it's easy to tell the people here not to cut down their forests, but what have we already mostly done with our native lands?)!



... So as not to end here on a negative note - progress is being made!

The SOS-OIC is very busy currently in its tree replanting efforts throughout North Sumatra (with potential plans to spread into the Aceh Province)! We are working in close collaboration with the Gunung Leuser National Park, and are 'putting back' some of the forest that has been lost to time and development.

Also every day that our staff is out here working and talking with the communities, we are making things better. We are constantly learning more and devising new plans and strategies to help save the orangutans. And of course, such a big part of that is dependent on the whims of the people living adjacent to orangutan populations; such that if they choose that orangutans are worth fighting for and saving, they will work to ensure that happens.

Although this programme mostly focuses on adults working in these plantations, there is also a session held just for the children of those adults, whom also stay on the plantations.
Everyone has to be involved - we've got to learn from whilst at the same time educate all of the relevant stakeholders (on past mistakes that we've made that can be avoided, the importance of the forest/orangutans in providing natural ecological services to mankind, etc).



So, it's up to ALL of us. Let's keep up the good work and do something then!

Palm Oil Introduction

Initiatives are being undertaken by a number of groups, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (www.rspo.org), to encourage crucial changes in the industry. Palm oil is here and here to stay. It’s nearly impossible to avoid or boycott, and such practices are not endorsed by the Sumatran Orangutan Society. “Boycotting palm oil is not the answer. There are also serious social and environmental problems associated with growing other vegetable oils, such
as soy” (Buckland, 2005). The palm oil industry employs millions of people, of which the oil is used in millions of our everyday products. And just as we in the west are either not aware of, or do not want our products to lead to the detriment of ecosystems (and the orangutans within), Indonesian and Malaysian plantation employees either are not aware, or do not want their work to lead to that detriment. So, talk of boycotting, or even limiting our use of palm oil (as there’s already such a glut of oil available), well, it’s not really going to help in the long run.

What we can do is support initiatives such as the RSPO, through choosing to only support corporations that choose to only support plantations adhering to RSPO principles.

That’s a simplistic way to describe the situation, and there’s always more that all of us could do. But, the basic chain from harvester/producer- refiner/packager- seller/consumer is there. So, if the consumer wishes to support only said companies, the rest of the chain has to follow if it wishes to persist and continue making a profit (which, need we remind them, is why they exist).

It’s nothing terrible to demand, either. As there is more than enough land already cleared and able to be neutrally planted with palm oil. There have been palm oil plantations in this country for centuries, taking advantage of the country’s natural resources just the same as many of the western nations (who, need I remind, did a much more complete job of destroying their ‘natural’ environment). It’s just that now it is becoming exponentially worse.

However, as said, it is not to say that the whole process of land transformation to plantation agriculture cannot be done more sustainably. Though, to be fair, I’m not so sure it can ever be anything more than done more sustainably, as opposed to being done sustainably. Monocrop agriculture where there once was a biodiversity hotspot teeming with life, it’s hard to call it sustainable (though, in order to advance that we have to admit all our own country’s violations against their natural environments).


Right, I got well off point, I meant to introduce and document our latest programme, the Palm Oil Roadshow Initiative.

But perhaps this will serve better to have an introduction, and to announce that whilst all these issues of sustainability are being discussed and debated internationally, in the meantime there are still problems occurring every day on the local level here in Indonesia (and of course in Malaysia – unfortunately it’s a shared problem) between wildlife and plantations.

Thus our Palm Oil Roadshows aims to help mitigate the frequency and severity of these everyday conflicts. This is done through 1. screening and distributing a health and safety-style training film targeted at plantation workers, describing best-practise guidelines for dealing with orangutans when they venture into plantations 2. Hosting discussions about conflict and conservation 3. Describing and demonstrating possible mitigation techniques in detail.

More details to come!




Buckland, H. (2005) The Oil for Ape Scandal: How Palm-oil is threatening the orangutan, A report produced for Friends of the Earth UK and the Ape Alliance.

(which can be acquired here - http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/news/orangutan_report.html)

Conservation Camps

The site of a camp session held in April 2008

The SOS-OIC have developed the 'Conservation Camp' programme as an enjoyable and effective way for young Indonesians to learn about the environment and orangutan conservation. Representing key members of future societies, the participation of young people is essential in any attempt to safeguard the Sumatran orangutan and its tropical forest habitat. Our varied and informative environmental programme works to deliver key conservation messages and in-depth knowledge on species and habitat protection, using the orangutan as a flagship species for the tropical rainforests it inhabits.

Some of the students being grouped together

For these programs 10 students are selected to represent each local school, with about 60 schools participating in each session. The students, along with their teachers, all come to an outdoor location and camp out for three days. This not only allows them to enjoy being outside and next to nature, (there's forest nearby!) but it also serves to create a conservation network. In that all of these participants are out and learning together, sharing and discussing ideas amongst themselves and with SOS-OIC staff.

Our Education division coordinator, M. Indra Kurnia, describing the importance of composting

Students are given talks on wildlife, conservation issues, and practical conservation actions they can undertake themselves. They are given training in practical aspects of conservation such as paper recycling (and production!), composting, proper disposal of rubbish and the application of conservation tools and surveying techniques.

Paper recycling - paper is blended into a pulp, mixed with leaf material for effect, and then dried to form new paper.

Through the use of interactive practical activities, educational films and targeted workshops, this programme has a high-impact, long-lasting effect at a grass-roots level, changing the way young people see their environment, whilst empowering them with the means to become actively involved in much-needed conservation projects themselves.

The composter built by the students

It doesn't look like much (or very impressive!), but this handmade composter can be made very easily with readily available materials. The compost produced can then be used as organic fertilizer for any number of crops, both reducing the amount of waste to be discarded and also the need for any harsh, potentially expensive fertilizers.

Group discussions bring together students and teachers from different schools

The camp offers environmental training that is not offered in schools and also gives teachers the chance to receive training in communicating environmental messages so that the next generation will see the value in protecting their environment. The programme is free to attend for Indonesian students and teachers. Just recently, funding was awarded by BOS Canada (http://www.orangutan.ca/) to host another camp session in the Langkat province, which is one of the last provinces in North Sumatra where orangutans exist in the wild. Therefore the children from these communities are growing up and living in areas adjacent to key habitat areas for conservation and biodiversity.

It's amazing the amount of knowledge and passion the children of Indonesia have demonstrated through programmes such as ours. As part of the closing ceremonies, they have a poetry session, where they recite verses they themselves write about the environment. It almost seems that if it were up to them alone, most all of the problems associated with orangutan conservation would come to an end.

By empowering young generations and instilling a sense of care and responsibility, the SOS-OIC is equipping a future generation with the tools and motivation needed. A system of community wildlife management is perhaps the only viable hope for conservation, of which environmental education programmes such as these can be seen as the first step towards securing a future for the wild orangutan.

Gunung Leuser National Park Replanting Project

One of the single most important factors affecting the remaining orangutan populations is forestry management. The focus has to change from timber-orientated management, as it stands now, to sustainable management of forested areas that involve local communities and recognises them as key stakeholders. Replanting programmes need to be implemented to restore critical degraded land and counter this rapid level of deforestation in Indonesia.

Therefore the Sumatran Orangutan Society has been involved in forest rehabilitation (planting) since 2005, and to date have planted over a quarter of a million (that deserves its zeros - 250,000,000) new trees in Sumatra!

To this end we are still working, and today I will detail one of our latest projects, the replanting of a portion of deforested national park in Langkat, North Sumatra.

Dr. Gan (Musim Mas) and our conservation division coordinator Mustaqim at the tree nursery

This project is in conjunction with multiple bodies, again with funding from LUSH Natural Cosmetics, but also the SOS-OIC has partnered with a palm oil corporation, Musim Mas, for both funding as well as consulting. It may seem an unlikely pairing, seeing that palm oil plantations are now seen as one of if not the major threat to orangutans. However, the plantation industry has begun to acknowledge its effects and is now seeking to lessen their impacts on the environment.

The area of Gunung Leuser National Park to be replanted

Accompanying my visit to our replanting project was Musim Mas's sustainability officer, Dr. Gan. Admittedly before meeting him I was pessimistic about the company's role, however after a long discussion have instead come to have a bit of hope in the potential role of the industry in the future. He has worked with other plantation companies before, and has brought them to RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil - http://www.rspo.org/) standards, and is working to bring Musim Mas up to the same standards.

It is not to say that all is perfect with palm oil, and that each and every company is working to meet the same standards. Perhaps in this respect Musim Mas can be seen as an exception rather than the majority. However it is still a very positive sign that industry stakeholders are themselves working to better their operations and lessen their impacts on the environment; whilst also partnering up with NGOs such as the Sumatran Orangutan Society to actively regenerate forest habitat.

Anyways... back to the project itself!

Objectives:

· Rehabilitate areas of Gunung Leuser National Park which have been degraded as a result of illegal agricultural encroachment (the land was actually taken and developed by a neighbouring palm oil company; but reclaimed through the efforts of the Sumatran Orangutan Society, with the authority of the National Government!) by replanting with indigenous tree species.

· Provide local communities with specific environmental educational and practical training on tree propagation and nursery management.

· Implement capacity-building activities in local communities to instill a sense of pride and responsibility towards the sustainable management of the National Park.

· Communicate the urgency of the conservation of Sumatran orangutans to local communities living adjacent to orangutan habitat.

· Inform local communities about the importance of protecting the integrity of the natural forest, both as Sumatran orangutan habitat, and as providing valuable ecological services of benefit to themselves.

· Provide an on-going supply of seedlings to support reforestation and re-greening efforts in Gunung Leuser National Park.

· Establish community forestry schemes in target areas to reinforce National Park buffer zones and provide sustainable alternative incomes for communities living adjacent to the park.

National Park Officials, Dr. Gan from Musim Mas, SOS-OIC staff, and local community members involved in the replanting programme.

A principal element in all of our programmes is the involvement of the local community. Without the input and support from the people living adjacent to the forests and the orangutans, any associated conservation programmes are inevitably doomed to failure.

Therefore, through February 2008, the SOS-OIC facilitated six meetings on topics suited to group needs. Community discussions were held on the initiative of forming farm groups, strategic planning of nursery management, justification and socialization of the replanting programme, replanting plans and the role of the implementing team, discussion on endangered endemic Indonesian flora and fauna by BKSDA (Indonesian government conservation body) staff, and an open focus group discussion to address any other questions and concerns of the people.

The on-site nursery and location of our National Park replanting programme.

Obstacles Encountered

1. Due to an extended dry season, the farm groups were forced to postpone planting. The seedlings should be planted in the rainy season so as to avoid a high percentage of seed death. Therefore until wet conditions return the community will focus its efforts on the nursery location (should be about ready to plant right now though!).

2. The farm groups are not ready to protect the surrounding forested area from forest-clearing by the people from outside their own villages. This takes place because is no legal decree/MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which protects the land and strengthens the authority of local community members who plan to rehabilitate the area. This will require further coordination and deliberation from various stakeholders, a venture the SOS-OIC is up to tackling!

Links

Have added a links and news menu to the side of the weblog for your convenience.

Also for for those of you interested in conservation in Indonesia in general, consider joining the INCL list:

The Indonesian Nature Conservation newsLetter (INCL) is a non-profit internet e-mail list for announcements and news about topics related to nature conservation in Indonesia. Messages appear in digest format and are sent out once a week in both English and bahasa Indonesia, text or HMTL format (English and bahasa Indonesia editions differ and are not just translations). English version of INCL was first published as the initiation of Ed-Colijn on 1998. Then it improved on 1999 with assistance provided by Muhamad Muchtar. In the middle of year 2000, INCL in Indonesian version was published. Since 2005 INCL has started using googlegroups mailing list until now.

To (un-)subscribe, or if you have questions or relevant writings/contributions to be published in either English or Indonesian, please send email to the INCL team at: incl.contact@gmail.com or incl.kontak@gmail.com (Indonesian edition).

Greetings from Medan / School visit programme

Greetings!

This is to be the latest development for the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) - entering the realm of the weblog . Hopefully through this medium will be able to better share with the world what we here at the Sumatran Orangutan Society - Orangutan Information Centre (SOS-OIC) are up to.

Which I suppose should start by explaining that distinction. The SOS-OIC is considered the field office of the Sumatran Orangutan Society. It is located here in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia (will post photos of the office soon). Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia - so it has got quite a lot of development and a fair deal of affluence. But it is still Sumatra, meaning that the forests (and the orangutans!) are not that far off (Bukit Lawang, the most popular gateway into Gunung Leuser National Park, is only 80km from Medan). From the SOS-OIC office we base all of our conservation operations in Sumatra, which I shall detail in time from this site (summary details can also be retrieved from: http://orangutans-sos.org/projects).

As you may already know, the SOS-OIC is primarily concerned with conservation education and outreach to local communities in Sumatra (though we also run forest replanting projects {to be detailed soon!} and are soon to start an education programme centered around the tourism situation in the above mentioned Bukit Lawang {also to be detailed soon - I did my MSc research in Bukit Lawang, so I'm quite keen to go on about that site!}).


One such education initiative we have is visiting community schools with our OranguVan service
This is our latest OranguVan in the fleet (two total at the moment), with major funding provided by the Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. The OranguVan is a rugged mobile library that allows for travel to different communities throughout Sumatra (sometimes across roads in various states of disrepair!).

Our goal is to reach as much of the community as possible. However, young people are to be the next generation of decision-makers of the world, therefore we have special programmes in place specifically aimed at educating young people.


In North Sumatra (and perhaps most of Indonesia) there is no conservation/environmental education curriculum in place in schools. However, 40% of Indonesia’s forests were cleared between 1950-2000, reducing ground cover from roughly 162 million hectares to 98 million (FWI/GFW, 2002); Further, forest cover in Sumatra alone was reduced by 61% from 1985-1997 due to logging, infrastructure development, internal migration, and plantation development (McConkey, 2005). There is thus an urgent need for conservation education, so as to inform the people of both the past and the current situation, so that they themselves have the knowledge and power to shape their future.


The SOS-OIC has therefore created and implented a conservation education curriculum that has officially been accepted by the governments from two large provinces here in North Sumatra (these are mostly rural provinces that border orangutan habitat and national parks - however we have plans to begin the education programme within Medan this coming September). The school visit programme (along with ALL of SOS's programmes) is run by our local Indonesian staff, many of which have advanced university degrees. The Founding Director of the SOS-OIC, Panut Hadisiswoyo, is currently at Oxford Brookes University (of which he was awarded a full scholarship to attend) in Oxford, England studying for his MSc in Primate Conservation. He is set to return next week and will use that education to further propel the SOS-OIC in its mission to help save the Sumatran orangutan.


The Sumatran orangutan population has decreased by 86% over the past 100 years and the most recent estimate places the figure around 7,300 left in the wild, with steady losses occurring every year (van Schaik et al., 2001; UNEP, 2007). Young Indonesians are to be the next generation that will truly hold the fate of the wild orangutan in their hands. Therefore it is imperative that they themselves are given a proper and complete education - the sooner the better!


Well, that will do it for now! Any and all feedback is welcomed!

-dave




References: (although perhaps not typical in weblog format - I always like to know where data comes from - so I'll make it available should you wish to dig deeper into the issues!)

FWI/GFW (2002). The State of the Forest: Indonesia. Bogor, Indonesia: Forest Watch Indonesia: Washington, D.C.: Global Forest Watch.

McConkey, K. (2005). Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii). In: Caldecott, J. and Miles, L. (eds.) World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation. University of California Press, pp.184-204.

UNEP (2007). The Last Stand of the Orangutan – State of Emergency: Illegal Logging, Fire and Palm Oil in Indonesia’s National Parks. In: Nellemann, C., Miles, L., Kaltenborn, B. P., and Virtue, M., and Ahlenius, H., eds. Norway: United Nations Environment Programme.

van Schaik, C. P., Monk, K. A. and Robertson, J. M. Y. (2001). Dramatic Decline in Orang-Utan Numbers in the Leuser Ecosystem, Northern Sumatra. Oryx 35 (1), pp.14-25.