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Sustaining the homeland of the Sumatran tiger

Did you know that Indonesia is the world’s most mega-biodiverse country? Well, Sumatra is the jewel in our crown, recognized worldwide for its unique animals, such as the Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros, elephant and orangutan

Ketut Putra (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, June 4, 2015

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Sustaining the homeland of the Sumatran tiger

D

id you know that Indonesia is the world'€™s most mega-biodiverse country? Well, Sumatra is the jewel in our crown, recognized worldwide for its unique animals, such as the Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros, elephant and orangutan.

However, a fact we Indonesians are less proud of is that these wild and wonderful species are also among the most endangered.

Deforestation here is rampant, destroying vital habitat for these species. In a little over 20 years Sumatra has lost 12 million hectares of forest cover '€” around 48 percent '€” because of forest conversion, illegal logging and fires.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry has stated that the deforestation rate for Sumatra from 2003 to 2006 was about 268,000 hectares per year, the highest compared to the other large islands in the country.

At this rate, we may destroy all of our natural forest by 2030 and the wonderful animals within them may be forever lost from the wild. If we let this happen, Indonesia will no longer be able to define itself as mega-biodiverse, but perhaps a country with the longest list of the UN'€™s International Union for the Conservation of Nature'€™s (IUCN) tally of red-listed or extinct species.

Our leaders are fully aware of the path the country is on and the terrible consequences that it may bring.

Then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and after him President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo set a bold vision to reduce the deforestation rate through a moratorium on new permits for converting natural forest to other land use and have also set an emission reduction target of around 26 percent to be achieved unilaterally and 41 percent with international assistance.

But the transformation of this vision into practice remains a major challenge.

The root of the problem is that the people who are clearing much of this forest are very poor and in need of reliable income. In addition, the decentralized local governments have often set the primary forest as a new source of local revenue. To start to deal with the issues we must provide these communities with alternatives.

To this end, many government partners, like Conservation International (CI), are working to find a solution so that people and nature can live in harmony.

The Sustainable Landscape Partnership (SLP) is one such project that works with partners in North Sumatra, the homeland of the Sumatran tiger.

The forests there are increasingly threatened by deforestation driven by the high global demand for palm oil, pulp and paper and rubber and by the effects of climate change.

This is further exacerbated by the limited options for sustainable livelihoods in local communities, so these people rely on forest conversion for these markets to meet their daily needs.

The SLP recognizes that Sumatra'€™s economic development is based on their natural resources. Our partnership also recognizes that local development needs can be met through the sustainable use of nature'€™s bounty.

For example, protecting water flows from the forest for use in agriculture, recognizing the role of forest in controlling the local climate and maintaining other essential services nature provides that are essential to economic
development.

The SLP aims to provide a model for tackling global challenges '€” such as climate change, deforestation, competition for agricultural lands and declining access to clean water '€” while simultaneously improving economies.

In the regencies of Mandailing Natal (Madina) and South Tapanuli (Tapsel) in the North Sumatra province, CI is working in partnership with the Environment and Forestry Ministry, local governments, the private sector and local communities to implement replicable business models that foster green development, particularly through economic alternatives to deforestation.

With the support of CI, the government of Mandailing Natal and Environment and Forestry Ministry have set aside about 68,000 ha of critical forest to create the Batang Gadis National Park as a home for the Sumatran tiger and other endangered species.

To improve the management of the park, the park managers have been trained on adopting CI'€™s TEAM (Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring) system that allows them to develop real-time data and provide early warnings about the status of biodiversity in an area, so that the national park management will be able to take immediate action to protect endangered species.

At the landscape level, the government of Mandailing Natal and South Tapanuli of have worked together with their private sector partners on palm oil and rubber and with community leaders to apply a sustainable landscape approach to guide their next 20 years of development.

One of key starting points is that both governments have completed and adopted the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), which is nationally mandatory by law in Indonesia to guide their 20-year spatial plan to be more sustainable and pro-green in investments.

By applying this SEA to their development, both governments have the ability to reduce their emissions by around 13 percent by 2035 and possibly increase carbon stocks by 27 percent.

We hope that these efforts will inspire similar efforts towards sustainability, local well-being and conservation. Already, the two neighboring governments of Mandailing Natal and South Tapanuli, and also North Tapanuli, have answered this call and recognize this reality.

The local governments very much depend on the interconnectivity of the contiguous landscape of the Batang Toru, Batang Gadis and Angkola region and their commitment to well manage those critical areas.

The SLP is educating farmers how to get more yield from their land, reducing the need to cut down more forest.

For example, following training in rubber cultivation techniques provided by the SLP, rubber yield increased by more than 30 percent among those trained.

Our partnership strongly believes that through implementing sustainable approaches in priority areas, local livelihoods can improve, agricultural commodities can increase their yields, deforestation can be reduced and nature can continue to provide for us all, including the world-famous Sumatran tiger.
__________________________

The writer is vice president of Conservation International Indonesia.

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