The restoration team at OIC are currently working on restoring six different areas of forest. This gives you an idea of the scale of the work on reforestation in Sumatra at the moment. Although there are still forest encroachments, the speed of forest destruction seems to be finally slowing and a will emerging from government authorities not just to be seen to be doing the right thing, but actually doing it. Slow progress, but progress nontheless.
1. Halaban
In 2017, 7700 new seedlings were grown in the nursery, consisting of 29 species of plants. Here the team are mainly focused on tree maintenance in the 15 Hectares of forest. In the cover photo, you can see the imapct of reforestation, the re-greenng. You can also see the older pristine forest at the top of the picture.
The camera traps at Halaban have picked up an interesting array of species in the last 3 months, including the critically endangered Sumatran tiger (only 600 left in the wild) and elephant. This is fantastic news as it means they see the replanted forest as a viable habitat.
2. Bukit Mas
Bukit Mas is a 50 hectare site which used to be an oil palm plantation. In 2017, 45 hectares were restored, with a total of 5,000 seedlings planted consisting of 20 different species. Most recent efforts have focused on maintaining existing saplings, through extensive mulching and grass removal.
For those of you with an interest in tree species and creating a viable rainforest from scratch, I have attached a list of all the seedling species listed. It gives you an idea of how diverse a natural rainforest is and how the team work to replicate that biodiversity. The team uses a combination of fast-growing trees, which create a canopy under which slower-growing fruiting trees can flourish.
Sadly in November 2017, heavy rain led to flooding, which affected the Bukit Mas restoration site and destroyed 3000 trees. The lost trees have been replaced by 2000 seedlings, although obviously these will take a while to grow.
3. Cinta Raja III
The team first started planting in June 2017 at this site and quickly planted 16,500 seedlings from 22 different species, covering 15 hectares. The second phase of planting took place in November 2017 and the new growth now consists of over 33,000 seedlings covering a total of 30 hectares.
There are 6 camera traps installed in Cinta Raja III restoration site. Obviously as the planting here is only around 6 months old, it is less likely that some of the larger species would be using the site already, but the proliferation of smaller species is a good sign and will help to fertilise the soil.
4. Bahorok
Bahorok was an area of forest, which was frequently being targeted by illegal loggers and poachers until the Gunung Leuser National Park authority took it back in October 2017. Forest restoration started in December 2017. We need to plant 10,000 seedlings to reforest the 8 hectare site. By the end of December, we had already planted over 7,000 of these.
In order to avoid a long journey into the forest and back out again at a time critical for the trees’ growth, we are building a cabin, which should be ready by February. It will consist of one bedroom and one bathroom, to facilitate the staff lives in Bahorok. The local community have been building the new cabin.
5. Sineubeuk – Kranji , Bakongan
This is a new restoration area and as such, we built two cabins to house staff and volunteers in November 2017, one at Sineubeuk Kranji village, and the other at Bukit Gading village. This means the locals can now focus on building the nursery and producing seedlings to transplant into the forest.
6. Singkil
Restoration project in Singkil started in November 2017. It was initiated by cutting down 70 hectares of oil palm trees. This was a joint project with The Nature Conservancy Agency in Aceh, Police department, WCS, Leuser Conservation Forum (FKL), and Agro Sinergi Utama (ASN) Plantation Company. This type of joint initiative is important for OIC as it means sharing resources and learning from groups with the same aims, This area of peat forest not only has incredible biodiversity, the trees help to keep the peat wet and in place and stop soil erosion. Amongst other things, when these areas are logged, the peat dries out and burns and can lead to the awful haze which people in South-East Asia know so well. The methods involved in peat re-wetting is a new area of learning for the OIC staff team and we look forward to carrying the expertise developed to other similar projects in the future.
Following the cutting down of the 1,748 palm oil trees in December 2017, there were several meetings with local community leaders, who decided they wanted to be involved in the project and offered to help with the construction of the restoration cabin.
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Five restoration sites on the go!
Sumatran Orangutans are Critically Endangered according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), and this is mainly due to the disappearance of their habitat. Thousands of hectares of forest have already been converted to other land uses in the Gunung Leuser National Park and its adjacent protected areas. That’s why the work of our field teams is so important to save the Red Ape!
During the last 3 months, we intervened in five restoration sites, at different stages of restoration. In Bukit Mas and Halaban, our oldest projects still active, the activities focused on the maintenance of secondary forest over 25 hectares. Maintenance consists of pruning tall trees and keeping the planting lines clear of grass, to avoid young trees dying. We also replanted 600 trees belonging to four fast-growing species over 1.5 hectare, with the help of local students and visitors.
In Halaban, 11 camera traps have been placed in strategic areas to observe wildlife. And we have been happy to see Sumatran elephants roaming freely in our site! Unfortunately almost all our cameras are now out of order due to humidity and moisture accumulated during the last months of usage. If you want to keep seeing how orangutans and other animals are benefitting from our restoration work, consider a donation for this project!
In Cinta Raja, an area located inside the Gunung Leuser National Park formerly encroached by oil palm farmers, 30,000 trees have been planted or are in nursery. This is already a huge effort to restore the 70 hectares devastated of lush rainforest destroyed by greed and illegal activities.
Finally, two other sites will be operating in the next 3 months. In Bakongan, our teams proceeded to map the 50 hectare area and involve the local community in the restoration work. After training, local farmers will be selected to conduct the reforestation along with our expert team.
In Singkil, one of the most important peatland areas of Sumatra, our team conducted mapping over the 150 hectares of the site. Peatlands are incredibly important for fighting climate change as well as being the area with densest orangutan population due to the fertility of the soil, which produces abundant fruit. Our field team is currently working with experts in peatland restoration from the United Stated to learn peat rewetting and hydrology techniques.
In both sites, we are designing the best work plans to implement a successful programme, alongside the local authorities. In November and January, we will build the main installations (team camp, nurseries) and in January 2018, seed collection will start.
As Rio Ardie, our restoration project manager, says: “Working in these two new sites, Bakongan and Singkil, is a beautiful challenge and key to protecting orangutans. We are so proud of all our supporters around the world who donate so we can carry on our work”.
In the name of all the team, we thank you very much for caring about orangutans and their habitat.
If you are able to maker an additional gift on Giving Tuesday, November 28th, this will help us access match funding from other donors. Thank you.
Links:
Restoring Rainforest Project Update August 2017
Over the last 6 months, there has been considerable progress in restoring forest in the three restoration sites which we are currently focusing on: Cinta Raja, Bukit Mas and Halaban.
In Bukit Mas, over 23,000 seedlings have been produced in the nurseries. In recent months, the team have been focusing on enriching the forest by planting 8,000 additional trees of more slow-growing varieties, which are fruit-bearing, such as Durian trees, which are a great favourite with orangutans.
The team also focused on clearing dead saplings to make room for new growth.
Tracking wildlife in restoration sites
The biodiversity monitoring team benefited from training at Sikundur organised by SOCP to use the same tools and techniques for tracking and logging signs of orangutans. This means a consistent approach to collecting data is being adopted across Sumatra and should mean more reliable figures from the monitoring teams in different orsanisations. In recent months, there have been signs of 8 different orangutans using the restored forest, including nest sites, camera trap footage and dung.
The team installed extra camera traps inside and around restoration site in Halaban to improve their ability to observe wildlife species that have returned to and used the previously degraded habitat. There were 11 camera traps installed in Halaban during this period. Of these, 6 camera traps were installed on the top branches of the trees in the restoration site in order to monitor animal species living in trees.
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Update on Cinta Raja restoration site
Fabien Garnier, SOS Conservation Programme Manager, 07/05/2017
The team and I left Medan at 7 am on Tuesday morning. Initially we made good progress, but from Stabat to Cinta Raja, the journey was through oil palm plantations covering thousands of hectares. Our off-road van was essential on these dirty, muddy and chaotic plantation tracks. Around 12pm, we finally reached Cinta Raja restoration site and its cabin, where the 4 restoration field workers have been living since the beginning of the project a month ago. Finally, at the end of the road, the Gunung Leuser National Park!
The team seemed in good health and we could see the restoration buildings taking shape: the 2 storey cabin was strong and would protect the team from bad weather, storms and wild elephants. The field workers had already started to build the nursery, with a capacity of 30,000 seedlings. We had brought mattresses with us, as well as kitchen equipment. The first task was to fix the water pump and tend the area around the cabin. The next step was installing solar panels to provide electricity.
After 5 hours spent in the car, I was happy to climb the nearest hill to look at the new restoration site. There were 75 hectares of what were once illegal oil palms to replace with indigenous rainforest trees. The oil palms, planted 22 years ago, should never have been planted as they are within the confines of the Gunung Leuser National Park. The palm oil trees were chopped down in February this year thanks to an appeal you helped to fund. We also had help from the National Park Authority, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the police force to secure the area. There were also lengthy discussions with the 18 families who occupied the area.
Now we can begin to restore this area to its former glory. It will not be long before orangutans, sun bears, elephants and many other species live here once more.
Establishing a new restoration site always provokes mixed feelings. The first impression is emptiness and desolation, with the palm trees lying on the ground, slowly decaying and fertilizing the soil. The second is anger at the thought of the forest and biodiversity that has been destroyed, because of lack of law enforcement, corruption and no respect for the environment. But at the same time we are optimistic, knowing that in a few years, thanks to your support and our work, the forest will regrow.
Rio, our forest restoration project manager, knows these feelings very well. He has worked on many restoration sites with us over the last few years. He too shares this feeling of pride: “Look Fabien, this banana tree next to the cabin. An elephant ate it in few minutes, the staff was scared he would attack the cabin, but he went away. That’s why we have to restore this area, so elephants and orangutans don’t come near humans anymore. We have to rebuild their home, the forest.”
I agreed and we had a last look at Cinta Raja before meeting the team to organize the upcoming activities. With one goal in mind: 30,000 trees planted by the end of the year.
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Caught on camera: Wild orangutans in forest restoration site
During January, over 15 hectares of degraded land was planted with at least 1,000 new seedlings. new seedlings. As usual, these were a combination of fast-growing pioneer species and fruiting trees. January was a good month for rain, with the restoration site in Halaban getting close to 140mm. This obviously helps the trees to grow fast, as long as the rain is not so heavy that it damages the new growth.
We have some lovely new footage captured by camera traps in one of the rainforest restoration sites in the Leuser Ecosystem. It shows wild orangutans making great use of the new habitat.
In one clip, a mother orangutan, with her infant clinging to her side, swings on the branch that the camera is attached to. In another, we see an orangutan getting comfortable in his nest for the night:
Please click here to see the videos: https://www.orangutans-sos.org/caught-on-camera/
Planting trees to restore rainforest undoubtedly makes an important contribution to conservation efforts in the Leuser landscape. However, we must also look beyond the trees, and consider what lies behind the success of our approach, and how we can be confident that we are making a long-term difference to the protection of Sumatran orangutans and forests.
When an area of orangutan habitat is destroyed by people or companies who want to use the land to grow crops, it’s not enough to simply plant trees and put up a signboard claiming the land back as a conservation site. We must ensure that those trees, and the untouched primary forest beyond, remain standing, becoming valuable habitat for orangutans and other species.
No matter how many trees we plant, the most essential element of our habitat restoration programme is the true, deep engagement of the communities who live next to the Leuser Ecosystem in becoming protectors of the forest, and defending its borders from future threats.
At Besitang, thanks to a group of local people, who, inspired by this project, have called themselves ‘Protectors of Leuser’, we can be confident that this area of forest will be safe and protected for a long time to come.
Following the success of the project, managed by our partners, the Orangutan Information Centre, we are expanding to reclaim and restore a further 75 hectares of orangutan habitat that was illegally converted into an oil palm plantation. We have raised enough money now to cut down 9,000 oil palms, and restore the land by planting thousands of rainforest tree seedlings. Work on this will start on February 20th
Obviously we can’t post pictures of all of these wonderful animals, but without your help, these animals would not have this new and fast-growing habitat to explore. Thank you so much.
Rachel
rachel@orangutans-sos.org
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