SAVING THE LAST LOWLAND FORESTS IN SUMATRA

Saving Nature is working with Forum Konservasi Leuser (FKL) to protect the largest remaining tract of lowland forest in Sumatra. Together, we are establishing an important elephant corridor to protect and restore connectivity of large forest blocks in the northeast Leuser Ecosystem (Serbajadi District, Aceh Timur Regency, Aceh Province). 

Maintaining connectivity will help ensure that wildlife can move freely, preventing populations from becoming isolated. Without this corridor, increasing human development will further sever the connections between forest blocks, impeding wildlife movement and undermining their resiliency.

Sumatran Elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis)

THE LAST LOWLAND ELEPHANTS OF SUMATRA

Within the Leuser Ecosystem, the lowland forests are among the most important habitats for the last of the Sumatran elephants. Here, the undulating lowland hills and rich fertile soils fed by a network of streams and rivers creates the ideal habitat for elephants. As a result, the Leuser Ecosystem is one of their last refuges. In fact, it is home to the largest sub-population of elephants in Sumatra, numbering 200-250 elephants.

The unrelenting global demand for palm oil has led to wide scale destruction of the forests in Sumatra. As a result, the noose of commercial agriculture and poaching is tightening for lowland elephants. Over time, as their habitat has disappeared, the elephants have also vanished from their traditional homelands. In fact, they are now rarely seen crossing the wildlife corridor in the Peurelak – Lokop areas and have not been seen migrating from Southwest to Northwest of Lokop, Aceh Timur since 2013.

HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICT

With less forest, clashes between wandering elephants looking for food and communities relying on sustenance farming are intensifying, often with fatal consequences for both. Each year, the human-elephant conflict in Aceh has caused a massive losses to both sides. Driven by hunger, elephants have destroyed hundreds of hectares of community plantation driving more than 150 families from their homes. For example, a total of 120 houses were damaged by wild elephants in the Serbajadi subdistrict in 2010 alone.

Sumatra Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica)

Sumatran rhinos, tigers, elephants, pangolins, helmeted hornbills, and orangutans are all listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their populations are declining worldwide due to poaching and habitat loss. As they disappear from other forests, the survivors face even more pressures.  Today, international poachers are moving into the last places where supply can be found for body parts for the Chinese black market.

As a result, poaching is rising at an alarming rate in the last of Sumatra’s forests, with an influx of hunters from Central Sumatra and other Asian countries targeting elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolins, hornbills, and wild birds. 

With insatiable demand on the black market for tusks, horns, feathers, skins, and other body parts used in traditional medicine, cultural rituals, and decorative arts, species are moving closer to extinction.

The Leuser Ecosystem offers one of the last places where there is hope to rescue them from the brink of extinction. By connecting the two large remaining protected areas, we can help enormously.  By restoring forests, you hinder access deeper into untouched areas. To do so, returning failed farms and plantations to forest is vital to a sustainable future.

But time is critical in the race against the relentless demand. As the forests continue to recede, access becomes easier for poachers. Already driven to extinction in other parts of Indonesia, these vulnerable species, the last of their kind on earth, are now in the cross hairs. 

In 2018, Saving Nature launched a 3-year initiative to build a wildlife corridor in the Leuser ecosystem to combat the loss of habitat, reestablish elephant migration routes, and build a buffer against poachers.

Our long-term goal is to connect a 5,500-ha area recently designated by the government as an elephant conservation area with nearly 300,000 ha of protected forest (production forest, protection forest and national park).

This satellite image shows an area at the north end of Sumatra. Towards the north, a valley cuts deep into a large continuous block of forest. As a result, this is where Saving Nature is partnering to create a habitat corridor to allow animals to move across the valley. 

Our approach combines forested elephant routes, increased monitoring to impede poaching, and establishing meaningful protections that preserve important forests from exploitation.

As our initial step, Saving Nature helped FKL acquire three parcels of land in a series of acquisitions needed to complete the corridor. To complete the corridor, we plan to acquire additional parcels of land that became available as owners abandoned their failed efforts at sustenance farming in nutrient-poor soils that typify tropical forests.

In 2020, we further expanded the corridor with the purchase of an additional 129 hectares.

CORRIDOR GOALS:

Total Corridor Size = 702 hectares (1,734 acres)

Total Cost = $475,000 (est)

Funding Raised To Date:

Area Protected = 359 hectares (877 acres)

Cost = $175,000

Support Needed:

Remaining Area = 343 hectares (847 acres)

Cost = $282,000

MAPPING IS CENTRAL TO WHAT WE DO AT SAVING NATURE

The process we use is to start with strategic maps that set the areas that are our priorities.  We then zoom in on the key places within them to map exactly where we should put our conservation actions into practice.  The International Cosmos Prize, awarded to Professor Pimm in 2019, explicitly recognized him for developing this approach. 

These maps illustrate what we do in Southeastern Asia. These first two maps show the numbers of species of mammals (left) and birds (right).  Red means more species, blue means fewer.

The next two maps show the numbers of threatened mammals (left) and birds (right). Key areas for threatened species are in Sumatra and Borneo — a reflection of the numbers of species that are endemic to these areas, but also the extensive loss of habitat from forest clearing, including for oil palm. 

The achievements in preventing the loss of biodiversity, restoring ecosystem health, and improving the quality of life for the local and global communities ultimately define our success. Since our projects have a long-term time horizon, we use progressive measures of success:

1.  PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY 

Movement of wildlife is a critical milestone for validating our work, demonstrating the species are repopulating diminished forests, increasing genetic diversity, and improving resilience. We begin with baseline metrics of mammal and bird species in the protected areas that should disperse through the corridor over time. Then, we evaluate project effectiveness based on the diversity of species moving through the corridor over time. In addition, we install camera traps throughout the corridor, both on the ground and in the canopy to record the species moving through.

2.  RESTORING ECOSYSTEM HEALTH

Once we launch a new corridor project, we establish the baseline forest cover. We then annually monitor the quality of the landscape, which improves as forests return, gradually restoring “ecosystem services”, such as preventing silting and landslides. Our team conducts annual site visits to assess reforestation progress using ground surveys, drones, and satellite imagery.  Over the longer term, we measure success in completing the corridor connection, based on the percentage of land we have acquired to prevent further destruction.

3. MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE

Once reforestation is underway, we begin to accrue carbon sequestration benefits to offset carbon dioxide emissions. As the trees mature, they soak up at least 5 tons of carbon per hectare per year. On average, each US consumer produces about 7 tons of carbon per year.

OUR RESULTS IN SUMATRA

Our corridor reforestation project with FKL to secure a future for the endangered and threatened species has already achieved several milestones. We completed the initial land acquisition to secure the anchor points of the corridor, thus protecting the forest from further destruction. Following our initial purchase of 39 hectares (96 acres) in 2018, we added 49 hectares (121 acres) in 2019 and 129 hectares (319 acres) in 2020.

We have planned out our next phases of land acquisitions, which will be implemented as funding for the project allows.  We estimate the costs to complete the corridor at $185,000 for the remaining 294 hectares (726 acres).

In 2018, we also began the work of restoration and monitoring. We now have a network of 10 camera traps installed at key points throughout the corridor to track wildlife movement.  Our camera traps are monitoring the area on a 24/7 basis, recording both photos and videos.

To date, we have recorded over 2,000 images and 230 videos, documenting 16 species moving through the corridor, including elephants, macaques, hornbills, and Asian golden cats. Unfortunately, we have also recorded poachers moving through the forest, collecting birds for the pet trade.

Having significantly expanded our corridor surveillance program, we have partnered with Duke University to measure results, build a database on the movement of species through the corridor, and model how species adopt the corridor to advance conservation science.

Furthermore, regeneration of habitat is an important measure of project success. In addition, we continue to monitor habitat restoration progress with an annual drone survey to evaluate progress in establishing a continuous canopy.  This data will be the foundation for modelling forest regeneration in tropical landscapes to determine the pace of forest recovery.

WHEN WE STARTED 

ONE YEAR LATER

129

Perhaps the best narrative for why Sumatra matters is our camera trap videos. They animate our work better than anything else.  Importantly, they demonstrate both the progress and the importance of saving the wildlife here.

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Sumatran Tiger Feasts on Camera Trap

Sumatran Tiger and Cubs

A splash of color in the mud

Two Sumatra Porcupines (Hystrix sumatrae) Keep Their Distance

Sumatra Project

Orange-backed woodpecker (Reinwardtipicus validus)

When It's Your Turn At the Water Hole

Monitoring Asian Water Monitors (Varanus salvator)

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Wild Boars (Sus scrofa)

Two Sun Bears (Helarctos malayanus) Out At Night

Foraging Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus)

A Rare View of A Bear Cat (binturong)

The Last Place On Earth

Asian Golden Cat Stops By For a Drink

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