Breaking News: Palm Oil Company PT KA Finally Begins Paying Fines for Tripa Peatswamp Destruction

The Jakarta Post reported that the palm oil company PT Kallista Alam has begun making restitution for the environmental harm that it inflicted through a forest fire more than ten years ago.

Although the company's action, which occurred eight years after it received a court order to pay fines, was applauded, one expert featured in the October report claimed that it came too late and was insufficient to restore the damaged land.

According to a government statement on September 29, PT Kallista Alam paid the Environment and Forestry government Rp 57.2bn (US$3.7M) on September 4.

PT Kallista Alam pursued a series of appeals all the way to the Supreme Court after being found guilty in 2015 by the Meulaboh District Court in the Aceh province of using fire to clear 10km2 (3.9 square miles) of land in the Tripa peat swamp on the northwest coast of Sumatra, according to a report from Mongabay on 15 May 2018.

The Supreme Court upheld the previous decision and ordered the corporation to pay Rp 366bn ($US26.5M at the time) in fines and reparations to rehabilitate the damaged forest areas, according to the report.

Last year's fires were particularly deadly, consuming an area larger than Vermont and sickening 500,000 people, including many children who live within the smoked areas. Shools were also shut down for weeks at a time due to the smoke clogging the air. Incinerating peet swamp forests releases massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, making Indonesia the third largest carbon emissions polluter in the world behind the US and China. The World Bank estimates that they cost Indonesia $16 billion as well.

Introduction to Leuser

There's just one place left on earth where tigers, elephants, orangutans, and rhinos live together in the wild: the Leuser Ecosystem World Heritage Site on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The Leuser Ecosystem spans 2.6 million hectares (6 million acres), almost three times the size of Yellowstone National Park. Its diverse landscape includes lowland and montane rainforests, nine rivers, three lakes, and over 185,000 hectares of carbon-rich peatlands. One of the last remaining intact rainforests in all of Indonesia, it is a crucial source of clean drinking water and agricultural livelihoods for over four million people.

The ecosystem services provided by the Leuser Ecosystem, which include 1.6 billion tons of carbon storage and the provision of water to 4 million people, are valued at over $600 million annually.

Threats to the Leuser Ecosystem

These forests are being burned to the ground. Between 1985 and 2009, half of Sumatra’s forests were destroyed. The decimation continues today; despite its protected status, Leuser has lost one-fifth of its lowland forests to illegal commercial activities in just the past five years.

The primary threat to this unique ecosystem is illegal palm oil expansion. As global demand for palm oil rises, oil palm growers seek to multiply the acreage of this valuable crop. Unfortunately, there is little unoccupied land left in Indonesia, leading growers to encroach illegally into the country’s dwindling but exceptionally biodiverse protected areas. 

Consequently, the Leuser Ecosystem has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger. In addition to palm oil, it faces accelerating threats from illegal and commercial interests in logging, mining, ill-advised energy projects, and the fragmentation of forests by new roads. The fires from this widespread destruction have caused major haze pollution from Singapore to Jakarta, resulting in huge economic losses and public health issues. 

Leuser Megafauna

Due to this destruction, Sumatra’s unique megafauna species are dying out. Of the world’s 80 remaining wild Sumatran rhinos, Leuser is the last viable population of this species on Earth. Of just 400 remaining Sumatran tigers, more than 100 live in Leuser, which is one of only two regions with enough breeding females to sustain this subspecies. Finally, 85% of the world’s critically endangered Sumatran orangutans call this forest home. As Sumatra’s forests disappear, it becomes increasingly likely that Sumatran orangutans will become the first great ape to go extinct. All of this has led conservationists to call Leuser one of the “world’s most irreplaceable protected areas"—if this forest disappears, these species will go with it. 

Construction of Research Station in Kluet

GC co-funded $400,000 for Ranger Protection of Upper Kluet River and construction of the Research Station.

Patrolling the Leuser Ecosystem

Eight Wildlife Protection Teams were deployed to patrol the BTMS area. In 2022, these WPTs completed 80 patrol missions, covering 4,947 km of predetermined routes over 1,181 days. One of these WPTs is supported by Global Conservation funding and is deployed to protect the Rawa Kluet area.

That team carried out 10 patrols and covered 592 km within 592 days. During their patrols, BTMS WPTs found various signs of wildlife presence and recorded them for further analysis by FKL’s Database Team. The most common wildlife signs found by the team in Rawa Kluet are Sumatran orangutans (973 findings), followed by Malayan sunbears (763 findings), Sumatran tigers (556 findings), and elephants (247 findings).

In this period, all 8 BTMS WPTs recorded 107 illegal logging cases, 10 encroachment cases, and 12 poaching cases. The highest number of illegal logging cases were found in the Rawa Kluet area and recorded by the WPT, supported by Global Conservation. Assessing the monthly data recorded by this team, the highest rate occurred in November 2022.

In 2022, Global Conservation and other donors have supported five collaborative law enforcement operations, which included illegal logging and encroachment cases in Aceh Selatan and Subulussalam, as well as an illegal gold mining case in Nagan Raya. Three of them have received final verdicts, and 11 perpetrators have been sentenced to jail. The rest are still under further investigation by the police at the time of this publication.

In addition, the GIS team found significant forest loss in Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve. It is one of the last peat swamp forests in Aceh, where Sumatran orangutan population density is high. FKL received reports that heavy machinery was mobilized to build canals and convert the forest into monoculture plantations.

In May of 2022, FKL and local authorities were informed by local communities that there was a Sumatran orangutan infant held captive by a Sultan Daulat Resort Police member. They instantly mobilized, moved to the location, and rescued the orangutan. The police immediately handed over the young orangutan, and the rescue team assessed the health of the individual. After being confirmed to be healthy, the orangutan was transferred to a rehabilitation center in Sibolangit, North Sumatra, by BKSDA Aceh and the Orangutan Information Center (OIC).

Sumatran Elephant Killed, Tusks Missing

Also in May 2022, a dead male elephant was found in Bun Bun Indah Village with no tusks. The team found the elephant's body in the field and it was partially buried and partly covered by a tarp. The FKL with the Aceh BKSDA, the Resort Police Criminal Investigation Team of Aceh Tenggara, the Military District Command of Aceh Tenggara, the Muarasitulen GNLP Resort, WCS, and other partners jointly carried out an investigation, and the medical team carried out a necropsy test of the elephant.

Based on the necropsy results, it was known that the male elephant was estimated to be approximately 10 years old, had autolysis, and was thought to have been dead for approximately eight days. The male elephant's tusks were missing, and since the contents of his stomach and chest cavity were spilled out, it is suspected that the perpetrators deliberately attempted to speed up the elephant's decomposition process. From the results of our investigation, the team found electric wires around the location that were previously used as a homemade fence to protect crops. It is suspected that the elephant died from being electrocuted with high-voltage electricity.

The authorities have arrested three perpetrators who were suspected to be responsible for the death of this wild elephant. The three suspects argued that they accidentally killed the elephant because the electric wire was intended to repel boar. However, the explanation is dubious considering that the elephant’s tusks have still not been found. The search for them is ongoing.

After going through the investigation process, the investigators concluded that two of the three perpetrators only helped bury the carcass of a dead elephant, while one of them was proven responsible for the death of this elephant and in violatation of the law. One suspect was sentenced to 2 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 100 million.

Wildlife Rescue and Mitigation

Rescue mission for Sumatran tiger in Aceh Selatan village

There was a rescue mission for a Sumatran tiger after several incidents in villages around Aceh Selatan. Teams were informed by local communities that they sighted livestock preyed upon and tiger footprints near their village in June 2022. FKL’s LRT collaborated with the Natural Resource and Conservation Agency of Aceh, Gunung Leuser National Park Agency, other partnered NGOs, and local communities to install 12 box traps.

A male Sumatran tiger was then captured in one of the boxtraps, and the rescue team immediately transferred this tiger to Gunung Leuser National Park Protection Center in Tapaktuan, Aceh Selatan. After the medical team conducted an examination, including blood tests, the tiger was stated to be in good condition and concluded that he is ready to be released back to the forest. He was relocated to a location where there were no other male tigers in the potential release area to avoid conflicting territories with other tigers. Lhok, the tiger, will be further monitored by FKL’s WPT, which patrols within the release area inside Gunung Leuser National Park. 

Rescue Mission for A Sumatran Tiger Caught in A Snare

In August 2022, BKSDA Aceh received information from the Gayo Lues Police following up on a community report about an individual Sumatran tiger caught in a snare in Sangir Village. The rescue teams from FKL, BKSDA Aceh, and WCS immediately went to the location. The next day, the team arrived and immediately coordinated with related parties to secure the location and carry out the rescue mission. The rescue team rushed to the location on foot, and the tiger was found entangled by a sling snare on its left toe. The rescue team anesthetized the tiger, cut it free from the snare, and evacuated the tiger to a more suitable location. The evacuation process was quite challenging due to the extreme terrain.

As soon as they found an appropriate location, the team performed a medical examination and first aid. Based on the results of the examination, the Sumatran tiger was a young and otherwise healthy female. The tiger was given the name Putri Siti Mulya Reko. She was estimated to have been entangled for about three days. The part of the leg that was entangled suffered from infection and inflammation and appeared paralyzed due to the injury. Putri was later transferred to the Regional National Park Management Section III in Blangkejeren for further treatment. After more than a month through the treatment process, Putri Siti Mulya began to show signs of recovery: she started to become more active, the tissue of her wound also started to regenerate, and her leg was finally functioning again. The team was able to release Putri in October 2022.

Suaq Forest Restoration

Global Conservation has also supported FKL in forest restoration activities in the Suaq restoration site in collaboration with the Pasie Lembang community. We deploy five restoration team members that manage nursery posts and other restoration activities. During this period, the nursery post has nursed 2,949 seedlings consisting of various MTPS (Multi-Purpose Tree Species). These seedlings will then be distributed to the local communities and planted around the restoration area. Women's participation is encouragingly high in this process.

The seeds have been nursed at Pasie Lembang Nursery Post. In the previous period, not all seedlings survived, and some died due to pest attacks and flooding that hit the post-restoration area. The seeds that survived were planted in secured land in Suaq together with the local community and farmers. As of December 2022, it is recorded that approximately 35 local communities joined the restoration program, including members of the Community Patrol Team, village administrators, and the youth community (PUGa).

Community Patrol Team

We have reactivated the Pasie Lembang Community Patrol Team. This CPT consists of 8 local people divided into 2 teams that patrol 12 days each month, respectively. In May–December 2022, they patrolled 12 times in the Suaq area, including the Lembang river bank, the Suaq Belimbing Research Station inside Gunung Leuser National Park, and the Suaq secured land or restoration area. To date, they have discovered many wildlife findings as well as recorded several illegal logging activities, as shown in the table below.

In addition, the team also recorded several illegal forestry activities, including one encroachment and two illegal logging cases near Suaq Belimbing Research Station. These findings were reported to the local government of Pasie Lembang to be followed up by the local authorities. Our prediction is that increasing the involvement of local communities will lead them to rekindle and grow their respect and compassion for the Leuser Ecosystem and the environment.