The rich biodiversity of Hadabuan Hills in North Sumatra, Indonesia is in desperate need of assessment and conservation inputs. We promote direct conservation engagement by the local stakeholder communities, and a first step is to recognize critical habitat areas to the high value forests in the landscape.
We are in need of funds to help protect this pristine landscape though local village stakeholder involvement and community-based conservation measures. Over the last two years, we have conducted four field surveys to the site and placed 15 camera-traps to assess the biodiversity of the area. It has proven to be rich, with a number of threatened species, and and a great assortment of species types, including five species of cats, and four--possibly five species primates.
The project will help define the critical wildlife species composition of the site, and local geographical distribution of cats and primates to help define critical conservation zones to the landscape, through the participation of local communities. Local stakeholder villagers will thereafter help define participatory conservation measures towards cats and their prey base, and primates in their village areas.
Further work in the area will establish Village Forest Areas, empowering the local communities to take hold of conservation needs in their immediate environment, and safeguard the resources from the impact of land-grabbing palm oil concessions. Our long-term approach is to empower local stakeholder villagers to manage the ecosystem in a collaborative manner, and through endorsement from the central government.
