Tesso Nilo National Park,Introduction

Riau Sumatra

Tesso Nilo National Park

Introduction

http://www.wwf.or.id/index.php?fuseaction=whatwedo.species_tesso&language=i

The Tesso Nilo Forest, in Riau Province, Sumatra, is one of the island's largest remaining forest tracts and home to an increasingly threatened elephant population. Government surveys together with WWF-Indonesia show that there may be only 350 elephants left in the whole Riau province, and 60 - 80 of them may live in Tesso Nilo. Thus, Tesso Nilo appears to be the most important elephant habitat left in Riau.
Tesso Nilo may also be one of the richest forests on earth in terms of biodiversity. The Center for Biodiversity Management has surveyed over 1,800 plots in tropical forests around the world. They found that no other plot has as many vascular plants as in Tesso Nilo. Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) surveyed forests throughout Sumatra, and also found that Tesso Nilo housed by far the most species.
The richness and beauty of Tesso Nilo's natural heritage is also under serious threat - currently two giant pulp and paper mills are operating within this landscape, and WWF-Indonesia investigation reveals that a significant portion of the wood feeding these mills originate from illegally logged sources. Illegal logging includes logging by legitimate operators who violate their contracts, as well as logging by people who have no legal right to extract timber. This timber finds its way to legal and illegal saw mills - of which there are at least 47 existing currently in Tesso Nilo.
Illegal logging causes the country a total loss of over 51 million cubic meters of wood a year. The demand for plywood reaches 63 million cubic meters a year, but legal logging can only provide 12 million cubic meters. Economic losses from illegal logging reach Rp US$4 billion annually, in addition to the loss of human life and property from the floods and landslides that follow illegal logging and deforestation.
This highlights the fact that illegal logging is one of the greatest threats to Tesso Nilo conservation. Recent satellite images reveal the speed by which land clearing of natural forest has been happening in Tesso Nilo. Furthermore palm oil plantations are also expanding into the areas rapidly, some of which belong to local communities. Modern industrialization and poverty interact dynamically in this landscape, resulting in forest clearing through illegal logging, loss of livelihood, human-elephant conflicts, as well as flooding and landslides in the rainy seasons.
WWF-Indonesia's Goal in Tesso Nilo is to help create a well-managed national park, capable of supporting 200 elephants, and the corridor to Rimbang Baling Game Reserve is still forested and secure from further conversion by 2010. The task is not an easy one. WWF- Indonesia has discovered that effective protection of this diverse forest requires negotiating and working directly with a diverse range of stakeholders, including multi-national paper companies, local and national governments, and local communities.
The challenge also lies in the fact that in working to save Tesso Nilo, WWF Indonesia has also to bear in mind the integrity of the landscape and its precious species as well as the well being of local communities. A mix of approaches are being used - from efforts to promote environmentally and socially responsible company policies, advocating for protection of the landscape at all government levels, empowering communities to manage natural resources in a sustainable way and helping to build their local economies, to promoting landscaping solutions when addressing human-elephant conflicts.

News

http://www.surfbirds.com/sbirdsnews/archives/2008/09/new_hope_for_su.html

September 14, 2008
New hope for Sumatra’s elephants and tigers as Indonesia doubles size of key national park

The government of Indonesia has declared its commitment to enlarging the most suitable block of forest for Sumatran elephants, expanding the vital Tesso Nilo National Park on Sumatra island to 86,000 hectares.

"This is an important milestone toward securing a future for the Sumatran elephant and tiger," said Dr. Mubariq Ahmad, WWF-Indonesia's Chief Executive. “To ensure that the commitment is effectively implemented, we must redouble our efforts on the ground to eliminate poaching and illegal settlements within this special forest.”

Tesso Nilo is one of the last havens of endangered Sumatran elephants and critically endangered Sumatran tigers. With more than 4,000 plant species recorded so far, the forest of Tesso Nilo has the highest lowland forest plant biodiversity known to science,with many species yet to be discovered.

Tesso Nilo National Park was created in 2004 in RiauProvince, but only 38,000 hectares of forest were included. With today’s declaration, the government of Indonesiais to extend the national park into 86,000 ha by Dec 2008 and integrate an additional 18,812 ha into the national park management area of 100,000 ha.

WWF has been supporting the government effort to extend and protect the park as the last block of lowland forest in central Sumatralarge enough to support a viable elephant population. About 60 to 80 elephants are estimated to live there, along with 50 tigers.

Tesso Nilo forest is also an important watershed for more than 40,000 people living in the surrounding 22 villages.

“Tesso Nilo is still under serious threat from illegal activities, but if we can protect the forests there, it will give some of Sumatra’s most endangered wildlife the breathing room they need to survive,” Dr Ahmad said.

“And while we greatly appreciate this precedent for more protection from the Indonesian government, there are other areas on Sumatrathat need safeguarding for the sake of its wildlife, its threatened indigenous peoples and to reduce the climate impacts of clearing.”

WWF helped establish and supports the Tesso Nilo Community Forum, run by all 22 local communities living in the buffer zone of the national park. The forum supports joint actions to protect the Tesso Nilo forest and gives the communities a unified and more influential voice in park management.

WWF is working with local communities that suffer from human-wildlife conflict as a result of disappearing forests in the province. Hundreds of elephants have died in the last few years.

A successful Elephant Flying Squad uses domesticated elephants and mahouts to keep wild elephants inside the park from raiding village crops outside the park. WWF also promotes the planting of buffer crops that are not attractive to elephants.

“WWF is committed for finding solutions for Sumatra’s people and wildlife and the global environment,” Dr Ahmad said. “This is where the focus should be, rather than on the narrower
interests of global pulp and palm oil conglomerates.”

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