WWF 9 May 11;
Pekanbaru, Indonesia – WWF camera traps recorded an astounding 12 tigers in just two months in the central Sumatran landscape of Bukit Tigapuluh, including two mothers with cubs. A video camera trap in the same area has also captured footage of three young tiger siblings playfully chasing a leaf.
Sumatran Tigers on Camera Trap from WWF on Vimeo.
“Our team was thrilled to discover 47 tiger images in our camera traps, from which we identified six unique individuals,” said Karmila Parakkasi, who leads WWF’s tiger research team in Sumatra. “That was the highest number of tigers and tiger images obtained in the first month of sampling we’ve ever experienced. And then the results from the second month were even more impressive—not just one tiger family but two, with another six tigers.”
The forest where the tigers were recorded is under imminent threat of being cleared by the pulp and paper industry, despite being designated a “global priority Tiger Conservation Landscape”. It is one of six the government of Indonesia pledged to protect at last November’s tiger summit of world leaders in Russia. The area, known as Bukit Tigapuluh, or “Thirty Hills”, is located in Riau and Jambi provinces in Central Sumatra.
There are an estimated 400 critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild. Evidence of three cubs surviving is extremely rare, WWF tiger experts said, and was captured by cameras located in the forest that are triggered by infrared sensors.
“What’s unclear is whether we found so many tigers because we’re getting better at locating our cameras or because the tigers’ habitat is shrinking so rapidly here that they are being forced into sharing smaller and smaller bits of forests,” said Parakkasi.
WWF’s analysis found the tigers are concentrated in locations with good forest cover, which includes natural forest areas inside a land concession belonging to a subsidiary of Barito Timber Pacific. As soon as pending permits are granted by the government, the company could clear the forest to supply the wood to Asia Pulp & Paper of Sinar Mas Group. Prominent conservation groups including WWF have urged the two companies and the government of Indonesia to protect these forests instead.
“This video confirms the extreme importance of these forests in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem and its wildlife corridor,” said Anwar Purwoto, director of WWF-Indonesia’s Forest and Species Program. “WWF calls for all concessions operating in this area to abandon plans to clear this forest and protect areas with high conservation value. We also urge the local, provincial and central government to take into consideration the importance of this corridor and manage it as part of Indonesia’s commitments to protecting biodiversity.”
Between 2004 and 2010, Bukit Tigapuluh lost 205,460 hectares of forest to pulp and paper and the palm oil industries.
The Sumatran tiger and the other five surviving tiger subspecies – the Amur, Malayan, Bengal, Indochinese and South China – number as few as 3,200. WWF is working to build the political, financial and public support to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.
Forest clearance threatens Sumatran tigers: WWF
Yahoo News 9 May 11;
JAKARTA (AFP) – Conservation group WWF Monday urged companies to drop plans to clear Indonesian forest areas where infra-red cameras have captured footage of rare Sumatran tigers and their cubs.
The video recorded in March and April shows two mothers with four cubs and another six of the critically endangered big cats in the Bukit Tigapuluh wildlife reserve in eastern Sumatra.
"That was the highest number of tigers and tiger images obtained... we've ever experienced," WWF tiger researcher Karmila Parakkasi said in a statement.
The 12 tigers are concentrated in locations with good forest cover, which includes natural forest inside a land concession belonging to Barito Pacific Timber, wood supplier to regional giant Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the statement added.
"This video confirms the extreme importance of these forests in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem and its wildlife corridor," the WWF's forest and species programme director Anwar Purwoto said.
"WWF calls for all concessions operating in this area to abandon plans to clear this forest and protect areas with high conservation value," he added.
"We also urge the local, provincial and central government to take into consideration the importance of this corridor and manage it as part of Indonesia's commitments to protecting biodiversity," he said.
There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. Environmental activists say the animals are increasingly coming into contact with people as a result of their natural habitat being lost due to deforestation for timber and palm oil plantations.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been under pressure from environmentalists to implement a promised two-year moratorium on the clearing of natural forest and peatland, which was due to begin January 1.
Norway agreed in May last year to contribute up to $1 billion to help preserve Indonesia's forests, in part through the moratorium.
A summit in Russia in November 2010 of the 13 countries that are home to wild tigers was the first meeting of top state officials and international organisations on the threats posed to the animal, and was the first step to unblocking funds needed to launch a five-year 350 million dollar plan of action to save the cat.
The Indian subcontinent is home to half of remaining animals as well as responsible for 54 percent of all tiger poaching.
China is the primary consumer of tiger-derived products, which are used in Chinese traditional medicine.
Russia's Amur tigers, which populate the Far Eastern Primorye region, have also suffered from habitat destruction and become targets for poachers eager to sell them across the Chinese border.
WWF takes images of rare tigers in logging forest
Reuters 9 May 11;
(Reuters Life!) - The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has recorded images of 12 endangered Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs, in an Indonesian forest that it said is about to be cleared by loggers.
WWF, which estimates that there are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, captured the images on camera traps in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest on central Sumatra island, which has seen rampant deforestation for palm oil and paper plantations.
Karmila Parakkasi, leader of WWF's tiger research team in Sumatra, said the number of big cats seen in two months of observation was impressive.
"What's unclear is whether we found so many tigers because we're getting better at locating our cameras or because the tiger's habitat is shrinking so rapidly here that they are being forced into sharing smaller and smaller bits of forests," Parakkasi said.
Still images show six individual tigers and a mother with a cub, while the video shows footage of another mother and three young cubs playfully chasing a leaf.
WWF said Indonesia's government had pledged to protect this forest area, but it was inside a land concession belonging to a subsidiary of Indonesian paper firm Barito Timber Pacific. The firm was not immediately available for comment.
"As soon as pending permits are granted by the government, the company could clear the forest to supply the wood to Asia Pulp & Paper of Sinar Mas Group," said WWF, adding that it and other environmental groups have opposed the clearance plan. Indonesia agreed with Norway a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear forest, under a landmark $1 billion deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, but it has yet to be signed into law as ministries wrangle over details.
The moratorium was expected to slow rapid industry expansion by the world's largest producer of palm oil, used to make everything from biscuits and soap to biodiesel and seeing growing demand from consumers in fast-growing Asia.
In the last 50 years, Indonesia has lost both the Bali tiger and Java tiger.
(Reporting by Alfian; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Alex Richardson)
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