ACTION ALERT
Allegations of Major Illegal Logging in Indonesian National Park
6/23/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
The collapse of central government authority and the continuing
economic downturn appears to be yielding a frenzied logging free for
all in Indonesia's National Parks. Several different sources have
been approaching me with information regarding systematic violations
of logging laws in supposed protected forests in Indonesia. The
attached materials relate to Suaq Balimbing Research Station in
Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra. This undisturbed (until
recently) peat swamp forest is home to the highest concentration of
Orangutans anywhere. There are similar reports of active and open
logging in Tanjung Puting -- a national park in Kalimantan.
Given natural economic ups and downs, reasonable (although apparently
limitless) human development aspirations, and the relative short time
frame that Western style parks have been established--it is hard to
imagine how any particular Park is actually preserved and likely to
remain so in the long term anywhere in the World. Given enough
economic hardship, it will all come down. In my opinion, this argues
for emphasizing maintaining forests over much larger areas based upon
the core, buffer, and corridor model. Only if remaining natural
forests remain predominantly so; and remnants are allowed to expand
and are restored, can we expect the natural forest systems to be
maintained and regenerate themselves in the long run.
Following are two articles relating to the logging in the Gunung
Leuser National Park in Sumatra; the first a background piece and the
second an action alert of sorts from a concerned and courageous
individual. Please take the time to respond to the action alert.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
Title: URGENT: HELP STOP ILLEGAL LOGGING NOW DESTROYING THE SWAMP
FOREST AT SUAQ BALIMBING RESEARCH STATION, SUMATRA,
INDONESIA
Source: Copyright 1999, Worldtwitch Home Page
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9684/suaq.html
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: June 22, 1999
Byline: John Wall
One of the richest lowland forests in southeast Asia, the until
recently undisturbed peat swamp forest at the Suaq Balimbing Research
Station, in Gunung Leuser National Park, north Sumatra, Indonesia,
has come under assault by loggers operating without opposition from
the Indonesian authorities. This is the site discovered by Carel van
Schaik of Duke University in the early 1990s, where the population
density of Orangutans is more than double that of any other known
place, with as many as 20 individuals per square mile. Here
Orangutans for the first time were discovered to be regular tool
users.
Following is an excerpt from Habitat Seen Playing Larger Role in
Shaping Behavior, by Dennis Normile, Science 1998; 279: 1454-1455:
"Carel van Schaik, a professor of biological anthropology and anatomy
at Duke University, has found that food availability plays a key role
in behavioral differences among orangutans. The solitary image of
orangutans is drawn primarily from studies in upland and mountainous
areas of Borneo, whereas van Schaik has studied the animals living in
a swamp forest on the west coast of Sumatra. His research team
observed as many as 10 adults feeding together in the same tree and
even saw coordinated group travel, both patterns of behavior rarely
seen among their upland cousins. 'Borneo orangutans are consistent
with the stereotype of orangutans being solitary', van Schaik says.
'The Sumatra [orangutans] are real partygoers.'"
I have not received reports of any bird surveys of Suaq, but would
not be surprised if it were found to have the greatest number of
species per square km of any site in Sumatra. All the mega-wildlife
of Sumatra still survives in the area, including Sumatran Tiger,
Sumatran Rhinoceros, and Asian Elephant.
Suaq Balimbing, which means "Starfruit Swamp", is located near the
west coast of Sumatra, across the western mountain range and
southwest of Kutacane. See Suaqbakong on Peter Loud's Map . Suaq is
considerably wetter and richer in wildlife than Ketambe, which is in
the interior valley along the river and main highway north of
Kutacane.
On 17 June 1999, the French AFP wire service carried an article
reporting that one-fourth of the study area had already been
illegally logged, and quoting from a letter by Michelle Merrill, a
doctoral student of Dr. van Schaik, that "Yesterday chainsaws were
felling trees along the river at the base camp. We could see some of
the trees falling and heard trees crashing down at a rate of one
every three to four minutes."
The article also quoted Kathryn Monk, Research Coordinator of the
Leuser Management Unit which oversees Suaq: "We have been notifying
the local government, we had meetings with the vice-governor and all
the relevant authorities and drew their attention to the general
increase in illegal logging, and some particular very severe cases
like Suaq. Yet nothing has been done and there is always the same
lack of compliance and enforcement of the law."
Michelle Merrill has set up a webpage about this ongoing
environmental disaster, dated 7 May 1999, entitled An Open Letter to
All Friends of Wildlife. She includes addresses of various
functionaries in Indonesia to whom she recommends writing (note: the
action alert below).
Some other websites pertaining to Suaq and the primate research by
Carel van Schaik and his team of scientists include:
Out of the Dark Ages, by Carel van Schaik - From BBC Wildlife.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/animalzone/56out.shtml
Orangutan Tools - Interview with Carel van Schaik on PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/orangutans/html/body_tools.html
Tooling through the Trees, by Carl Zimmer - from Discover Magazine
http://coldfusion.discover.com/output.cfm?ID=586
Report about a student's experiences doing field work at Suaq
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/IP/inted/programs/intern/report96/more
sco.html
See also:
Orangutans 20 Years from Extinction (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov98/1998L-11-25-03.html
Indonesia Forest Conservation News
http://forests.org/forests/indonesia.html
Logging and poaching in Indonesian reserves have accelerated in the
power vacuum since the collapse of the Suharto government last year.
In Aceh, where Gunung Leuser is located, there have been several
attacks by local resistance groups on police and military, with many
deaths. As a result, the situation is said to be very tense, and it
reported to be unlikely that the government will send police or
military to protect the reserve or it inhabitants.
There have other recent reports about illegal logging, mining and
poaching in Tanjung Puting, Kerinchi, Way Kambas, and Bukit Barisan
Selatan, including involvement by local politicians and military.
(E.g., 3 Chestnut-capped Thrushes, Zoothera interpres from Bukit
Barisan Selatan observed in bird market in Kota Agung, 8/98 (OBC
Bull. 29:53); military official arrested for hunting tigers in Way
Kambas and selling skins for five million rupiah, (OBC Bull. 29:18).)
The same thing may be happening at other reserves lacking
international researchers to report to the outside world.
It's difficult to image what can be done to save Suaq. This is an
example of an international environmental crisis that calls for
international assistance and coordination. Yet, to the United States
government, international relations now consist of dropping bombs on
other countries too small and too far away to retaliate. With the $50
Million per day recently spent demolishing Serbia, the entire
population of Aceh could have been sent on a pilgrimage to Mecca and
the reserves effectively policed.
The only way to conserve forest in Indonesia may be for
conservationists to bribe whoever happens to be in control locally
more than the loggers, poachers and miners, or to subsidize dangerous
military operations by the central government to protect the parks.
Simply asking officials with authority to enforce their laws almost
certainly will continue to be futile unless it can be made more
profitable than not enforcing the laws.
If you have any additional information, links, bird lists, comments
orsuggestions, please let me know. While on the subject of Sumatra,
if you should learn of any recent report, verified or not, of the
Carpococcyx ground-cuckoo endemic to Sumatra, please let me know as
soon as possible.
ITEM #2
Title: An Open Letter to All Friends of Wildlife
Source: Michelle Y. Merrill
Ph.D. Student
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy
Duke University
http://www.duke.edu/~mym1/suaq.htm
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: May 7, 1999
Dear friend,
I wish to inform you of a dire situation currently developing in the
rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia. Suaq Balimbing Research Station
is being illegally logged. It is within Gunung Leuser National Park,
and is supposed to be a protected area, but there is no local
enforcement, in spite of repeated requests from our station and the
Leuser Management Unit/ Leuser Development Programme. The situation
has become critical in the last two weeks, as threats are made
against research assistants, and logging continues to invade the
research area. In the last two months, about 144,000,000 square
meters within the established trail system have been effected by
logging. This is about one-quarter of the entire research area.
Large areas directly adjacent to the study area have been logged as
well.
I can barely begin to describe how unique and valuable Suaq Balimbing
is as a research and wildlife conservation site. Suaq Balimbing has
a very high density of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus abelii, 7
individuals/km2), and the orangutans here are found in social groups
more often than anywhere else they have been studied. In addition,
the site is home to four species of monkey (Macaca fascicularis, M.
nemistrina, Presbytis thomasii and P. kristata), two species of
gibbon (Hylobates lar and H. syndactalus), plus tigers (Panthera
tigris sumatrae), bears (Helarctos maylayanis), wild pigs (Babyrousa
babirussa) and a remarkable diversity of other wildlife.
Yesterday, chainsaws were felling trees within only about 25 meters
of the dock, along the river at the base of camp. From the main camp
building, we could see some of the trees falling and heard trees
crashing down at a rate of one every three to four minutes. The area
where the loggers were working had been an active phenology plot,
where the growth and productivity of various species of trees that
produce food for orangutans were being tracked. It is estimated that
all of the trees over about 20cm in diameter were being removed.
The logging is definitely having an impact on the behavior of the
wildlife in the area. Though encounter rates have not been
systematically recorded, the impression of many of the researchers
and assistants is that the frequency of encounters with orangutans
and tigers inside the research area has increased in the last two
months, probably due to a loss of other suitable habitat in the
surroundings.
The noise and disruption from the logging also has a direct effect on
the behavior of some animals. While logging was going on along the
river near camp, many hornbill birds were disturbed, fluttering
around and squawking in distress. The sound of crashing trees evoked
a long-call response from an adult male orangutan.
The station manager, the Leuser Management Unit, and foreign
researchers have asked the government for assistance from the police
or military in stopping the illegal logging and protecting the safety
of those working at the research site, but no help has been
forthcoming in recent months. The loggers are making no effort to
hide their illegal activities within the park, because they believe
the regulations will not be enforced. Just yesterday as I was
leaving the station, a logging truck filled with timber was blocking
the road leading out of the park, well within the national park
boundaries and in the middle of the day.
The current logging is also making further research nearly
impossible. Several research assistants have been threatened, told
that if they were to interfere with the logging, the chainsaws would
be used on them. These research assistants are people who were hired
for their skill at taking data. They are not armed beyond a small
knife to help them keep the trails clear, and are not trained or
expected to provide defense. They have avoided confronting the
loggers, and though most encounters with loggers and poachers have
been quiet and peaceful, a few have ended in threats of violence from
the encroaching parties. Even in the center of the research area,
where no logging has been seen yet, loggers and poachers are being
encountered more often, and the student researchers and research
assistants fear for their safety.
Suaq Balimbing is one of the world's most important research sites
for primate behavior, as it is the only site where orangutans are
known to regularly make and use tools to get food. The orangutans at
Suaq use tools to get honey and insects from holes in trees, and to
get the rich seeds from a fruit with a tough husk and stinging hairs.
Though the use of tools by wild chimpanzees has been well-documented,
we have just begun to investigate orangutan tool use and its
implications for understanding the origins of human material culture.
The high level of sociality seen among the orangutans at Suaq may be
directly related to their use of tools.
Is the flowering of sociality and hence culture we see in the
orangutans at Suaq a reflection of past glory or the opening of a new
path? This depends on whether we think the habitat, and subsequent
population density, we find at Suaq is typical of what most orangutan
habitat was like before widespread habitat modification by humans.
If such swamp forests were more common thousands of years in the
past, then we might expect that the population density and behavior
of the orangutans at Suaq is "normal" and "natural" -- in fact, these
might be the circumstances under which the orangutan's tremendous
capacity for social learning evolved. This would mean that Suaq
Balimbing is one of the last remaining "normal" orangutan habitats,
and everywhere else we currently find orangutans is marginal habitat
where their behavioral repertoire has been limited.
On the other hand, if the high population density at Suaq is a result
of an "unnatural" squeezing due to pressures of habitat loss
elsewhere, we might be witnessing the first steps of a key
evolutionary change: the transformation of intelligent extractive
foragers into cultural beings.
Either way, the incredible significance of this site and the
population of orangutans who inhabit it cannot be overstated.They
must be saved!
Taking action in defense of the forest in and around the Suaq
Balimbing research situation is vitally important, and it must be
done quickly if there is to be anything left. Please give any
assistance you can to help preserve this amazing and threatened
resource. To express your concern, please write to the following
people:
The Minister of Forestry
Gedung Manggala Wanabakti
Jalan Gatot Subroto
Jakarta Pusat
Indonesia
indofor@idola.net.id
The Governor of Aceh
(the province where the site is located)
Gubenetor Aceh
Jalan Tenhu Nyak Arief
Banda Aceh
Indonesia
The Director General of PKA
(responsible for the Protection and Conservation of Forests)
Abdul Manan Siregar
Gedung Pusat Kehutanan
Jalan Jend. Gatot Subroto
Jakarta
Indonesia
Kahanwil Aceh
(responsible for military in the province)
Jalan Cut Nyak Dhien
Banda Aceh
Indonesia
Sincerely,
Michelle Y. Merrill
http://www.duke.edu/~mym1/
Ph.D. Student
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy
Duke University