Habitat loss is a major cause for species decline worldwide. Zoos Victoria works closely with Fauna & Flora International to protect a major part of Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra. This is a critically important region where Sumatran Orang-utans, Sumatran Tigers and Sumatran Elephants all still survive.

Although much of the area is legally protected, the forest and its wildlife are still at risk from illegal logging, poaching and land encroachment by illegal settlers. Using elephants as its ‘flagship’ animal, this project engages local communities, government forest rangers, and riders of captive elephants (mahouts) in field-based activities that protect the forest, raise environmental awareness and build support for conservation.

While elephant conservation remains an important issue, the overall program is much broader, and when successful will contribute to the protection of one of the largest remaining pieces of forest in Sumatra, and the wildlife within.

The Program Focus

With the Sumatran Elephant as its flagship, this program aims to conserve part of the Gunung Leuser National Park in Northern Sumatra and Aceh Provinces. At over 1.5 million ha, this is the largest single remaining piece of forest in Sumatra and has high biodiversity values, including populations of Asian Elephants, Orang-utans, Gibbons and Sumatran Tigers.

The number of elephants has continued to decline in the park and other areas of Sumatra, as well as across Asia. Listed as Endangered by the IUCN, the total estimated wild population of Asian elephants is between 38,500 and 52,500, with a further 16,000 in captivity. In Sumatra, the total wild population of elephants is estimated at between 1,500 and 5,000 animals; an accurate figure will be determined over the next two years through a rigorous island-wide study.

This program works with local communities to develop practical ways for them to conserve these protected forest areas and their wildlife, while at the same time improving their livelihoods.

The Conservation Issue

Habitat loss and fragmentation is threatening the survival of many species across the world. Combine this with unsustainable illegal poaching, and much of Sumatra's wildlife, including elephants, is under threat of extinction.

The Asian Elephant has disappeared from approximately 95% of its former range, which, some 6,000 years ago, extended across the Indian sub-continent to South-East Asia and China. The main threats to Asian Elephants are the loss and fragmentation of forest habitat and illegal killing, either by poachers or in retaliation to conflict with farmers.

Habitat Loss & Fragmentation
Loss and fragmentation of habitat is perhaps the most important factor affecting Asian Elephants in the wild. This is mainly driven by the pressures of human development, which has led to the clearing and conversion of forest habitat. Expanding populations, as well as developing economic markets for products such as oil palm, rubber and sugar cane, are replacing large tracts of tropical rainforest.

The resultant habitat fragmentation has a major impact on elephants, separating populations and leading to low breeding success. In Sumatra, the remaining elephants are now separated into more than  30 to 40 distinct populations with none larger than 500 animals, and some with less than 50. However, some of this data is based on estimates that have not been rigorously tested and needs review; for instance, a 2002 robust and detailed field study of elephants in Lampung Province in southern Sumatra showed that only three of the previously reported 12 populations were extant and only two of these contained substantial elephant numbers.

While many of the forests occurring in this program site have been protected against conversion to oil palm or pulp wood plantations, illegal logging and clearance by encroaching settlers still threatens forest habitat.

Human-elephant Conflict
The replacement of rainforest habitat with agriculture has led to conflict between elephants and humans. As their habitat becomes fragmented and degraded, elephants come into more frequent contact with domestic and commercial plantations and farms. Annually, elephants have been reported to damage millions of dollars worth of agricultural crops and hundreds of people are killed. This can then also lead to elephants being killed in retaliation.

Adding to this, domestic crops can also be more palatable to elephants than their wild forage, leading them to raid crops even when they have other alternatives.

Trade
Continuing demand for ivory, and to a lesser degree elephant parts for medicine, maintains the market value of an elephant, attracting illegal poachers and traders to valuable tuskers. Animals within the parks are also at risk from the loss of this habitat and from poaching for their meat or bones.

Zoos Victoria’s Conservation Field Partner

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is the world's longest established international conservation body, founded over 100 years ago. FFI focuses on solutions that are sustainable, are based on sound science and take account of human needs. Zoos Victoria has been supporting FFI's work in Sumatra to protect part of the Gunung Leuser National Park since 2002. By working with local communities and government agencies, FFI is building skills and capacity to protect this important habitat in the future.

Program Plan

By addressing the key threats of habitat loss, fragmentation and illegal poaching, this program aims to protect a range of species under threat, including Sumatran Elephants, Sumatran Tigers and Sumatran Orang-utans.

Three Conservation Response Units form the core operational unit; two are based in the at Tangkahan in the north of the park and one is based near Bengkulu in the south. Each unit comprises three to five trained elephants and their riders (mahouts), local FFI staff, government rangers and village representatives. The units were created mainly to address conflict between humans and elephants, helping villagers respond to intrusions by elephants, and preventing conflicts that threaten elephant survival. The units also play an important role in supporting broader program objectives:

1. Working with local communities to establish livelihoods that are sustainable alternatives to destructive forest activities.
2. Ensuring management and protection of the forest through elephant patrol- supported forest monitoring and through developing skills and capacity within local institutions.
3. Promoting community awareness and understanding of the value of the forest and their forest use rights and protection responsibilities.

Zoos Victoria's Role

Support of in situ conservation is a high priority for Zoos Victoria. Through our partnership with FFI we have provided significant support for its Sumatran Conservation Program. Much of this has been possible through the connections that our elephants, tigers and orang-utans create with the community. Fundraising on site at Melbourne Zoo's Trail of the Elephants and the new Orang-utan Forest Sanctuary, coupled with the creative talents of our elephants who create paintings as part of an enrichment program, have directly raised funds to support the conservation of these and other species in the wild.

Zoos Victoria staff also contribute directly to the program’s activities and have participated in key planning meetings in Sumatra, helping to establish the program’s priority activities.

Key Achievements

Significant outcomes have been achieved in the Tangkahan sector:

• A local community organisation, Lembaga Pariwisata Tangkahan, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Gunung Leuser National Park in 2005, giving the organisation management responsibility for 17,000ha of Gunung Leuser National Park. This is the first decision of its kind in Indonesia
• As a result of the community organisation’s activities, supported by the Tangkahan unit, there were no illegal forest activities in the managed 17,000ha in 2005–06
• In 2006, a meeting of Indonesian environment journalists, facilitated by the Tangkahan unit, resulted in the declaration to establish the Indonesian Alliance of Environment Journalists
• The Tangkahan unit collaborated with a local non-government organisation, the Sumatran Orang-utan Society-Orang-utan Information Centre, to undertake student camps and implement the outcomes of the Sumatran Orang-utan Education Program Conference Workshop
• An elephant trek for tourists was established as the first step in a broader ecotourism program
• Networks to address poaching of tigers in the south of the Park were strengthened, leading to the arrest and conviction of a major illegal wildlife dealer
• Zoos Victoria staff worked at the Tangkahan centre to enhance staff skills in visitor communication and support delivery of education programs

References

Hedges, S., Tyson, M.J., Sitompul, A.F., Kinnaird, M.F., Gunaryadi, D. & Aslan (2005) Distribution, status and conservation needs of Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Lampung Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Biological Conservation 124 (2005): 35-48.
 
Van Schaik, C.P. & J. Supriatna (eds.) (1996) Leuser: A Sumatran Sanctuary. Yayasan Bina Sains Hayati Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.