THE threat came from a resident of Kutablang, Darul\u00a0Makmur district, Nagan Raya regency, Aceh. \u201cI will\u00a0kill the orangutans if they return and eat the shoots\u00a0of my oil palm trees,\u201d he told Suratman and other activists\u00a0from environmental foundation Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari\u00a0(YEL).<\/p>\n
Suratman, who assists YEL with their activities, told Tempo\u00a0that the resident was irritated because some of his eight-year old\u00a0oil palm trees had died. For that reason, the resident last\u00a0Wednesday asked YEL foundation activists to drive\u00a0away or capture the protected apes that until now\u00a0have been living in the peat forest of Rawa Tripa.<\/p>\n
Orangutans do frequently visit the local settlement\u00a0and oil palm plantations, Sutarman said. Just\u00a0the day before he had seen the animals in Merkati\u00a0village. Along with offi cers from the Aceh Natural\u00a0Resources Conservation Agency, YEL continues to\u00a0provide guidance for villagers to prevent them from\u00a0killing the animals.<\/p>\n
In February last year, YEL found a baby orangutan\u00a0in a critical condition in Sidojadi village. It\u00a0seemed that its mother had been killed by locals.\u00a0To rescue the young ape, YEL and the Conservation\u00a0Agency moved six orangutans from the area\u00a0to a pristine forest in Central Aceh over the period\u00a02011-2012.<\/p>\n
The Rawa Tripa peat forest, located in the Leuser\u00a0Ecosystem Zone and bordering the Leuser National\u00a0Park, is shrinking following the government licensing\u00a0of oil palm companies to reclaim the land. In the\u00a0early 1980s the peat area on the southwestern coast\u00a0of Aceh covered no less than 62,000 hectares. Now\u00a0its total area is no more than 17,000 hectares. The\u00a0latest clearance was the opening of 1,605 hectares\u00a0by oil palm company Kallista Alam.<\/p>\n
This situation is obviously of grave concern, as the Leuser\u00a0ecosystem serves as the habitat of tigers, elephants, rhinos and\u00a0orangutans, which have been listed as endangered animals by\u00a0the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).<\/p>\n
Science journal in its November 2013 issue mentioned the place\u00a0as one of the world\u2019s irreplaceable protected zones. \u201cThe Leuser\u00a0Ecosystem provides countless environmental services, which\u00a0are globally and locally important,\u201d wrote Graham Usher, a\u00a0Landscape Protection Specialist at the PanEco Foundation.<\/p>\n
Ian Singleton, Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation\u00a0Program, explained that Rawa Tripa had been one of the\u00a0three remaining peat swamp forests in Sumatra still inhabited\u00a0by orangutans. \u201cThe population density of orangutans can\u00a0reach eight per square kilometer in this area, compared to the\u00a0average of only one or two per square kilometer of forests in other\u00a0regions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tempo, visiting the peat land in July 2012 when it had already\u00a0been reclaimed by Kallista Alam and Surya Panen Subur II, witnessed\u00a0traces of forest burning. Kallista set up blocks on half of\u00a0the 1,605 hectares of land. With heavy-duty equipment, canals\u00a0were built to channel water into rivers. The same pattern was\u00a0followed by seven other companies holding concessions in the\u00a0Rawa Tripa zone.<\/p>\n
The impact of the deforestation has now been felt by people\u00a0in Darul Makmur and other districts. \u201cWhen it rains even for a\u00a0while, our settlement is inundated,\u201d said Suratman, who lives in\u00a0Sukarame village. In September, water fl owed into his house to\u00a0a depth of 10 centimeters. Previously, he said, the village flooded\u00a0only once in a year at the peak of the wet season. And even\u00a0then, houses were not inundated.<\/p>\n
Conversely, in the dry season clean water is hard to obtain.\u00a0Water pumps generally used by residents with a drawing capacity\u00a0of seven meters can no longer draw water. Inevitably, they\u00a0have been forced to use jet pumps because the depth of wells\u00a0comes to around 15 meters, Suratman said. Another adverse effect\u00a0on residents is the loss of livelihoods. \u201cRawa Tripa\u2019s catfish,\u00a0once famous, are now difficult to find,\u201d noted Suratman, born\u00a046 years ago in Darul Makmur district.<\/p>\n
He added that part of the land already cleared by Kallista\u00a0Alam\u2014and now disputed\u2014is controlled by residents in five villages\u00a0in Darul Makmur. Each village gets a maximum of two\u00a0hectares to plant oil palms. YEL and other environmental activists\u00a0once proposed that the land be made a conservation area.\u00a0But the regional administration gave no response. Without outside\u00a0help, they predict that the peat land and orangutans of\u00a0Rawa Tripa will disappear in the next few years.\u00a0Untung Widyanto<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE threat came from a resident of Kutablang, Darul\u00a0Makmur district, Nagan Raya regency, Aceh. \u201cI will\u00a0kill the orangutans if they return and eat the shoots\u00a0of my oil palm trees,\u201d he told Suratman and other activists\u00a0from environmental foundation Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari\u00a0(YEL). Suratman, who assists YEL with their activities, told Tempo\u00a0that the resident was irritated because some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4053,4003,4113],"tags":[],"partner":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-62824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forests","category-kalimantan-en","category-sumatera-en"],"yoast_head":"\n