Karl Mathiesen The Guardian 30 Apr 15;
The winner of a major conservation prize has called on the Indonesian government to halt a road-building plan that threatens the last place on Earth where elephants, rhinoceros, tigers and orangutans live together.
The plan for the Ladia Galaska road network has been approved by the Aceh government, but requires consent from the central minister for home affairs to go ahead.
Panut Hadisiswoyo, who won a £35,000 Whitley Award on Wednesday for engaging north Sumatran communities on orangutan conservation, said the development would be a disaster for the densest remaining population of Sumatran orangutans.
“The spatial plan must be cancelled and must be revised to include the Leuser ecosystem so that development is in line with the conservation goals in Sumatra,” said Hadisiswoyo. The plan currently makes no mention of the precious ecosystem it threatens.
If approved, the roads would connect the east and west coasts of Aceh, severing the ecosystem in nine places. Hadisiswoyo said the fragmentation of forests by roads and plantations meant mostly-tree dwelling orangutans would have to come to ground - making them vulnerable to poaching and predation. Eventually, small groups would become cut off and genetically isolated, making their survival untenable.
“The consequences will be a risk for orangutans. Many forests will be converted into plantations and this will be bad for the survival of the orangutan and for the viability of their long-term population. Forests will be fragmented, they’ll be cleared for plantations.”
A past study predicted the Aceh government’s road building plans, and the plantations, poaching, development and logging they will facilitate, would result in the loss of at least a quarter of the remaining 6,600 Sumatran orangutans by 2030.
“It’s a massive issue — an enormous assault on the last place on Earth where orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinoceros still exit. It’s truly precious real estate,” said Bill Laurance from James Cook University. He authored a recent study that found the road network would increase the area of forest at high risk of deforestation by 40%.
“These species are all critically endangered – especially the Sumatran tiger and rhino. They are sitting on a precipice, staring straight into the void of extinction.
The 400km road network known as Ladia Galaska would open up like a flayed fish some of the most critical surviving habitat for these four species,” he said.
Last year, 1.3 million people signed a petition asking Indonesia’s president to reject the spatial plan, which has been championed by Aceh’s president despite conservationists’ claims it is in breach of Acehnese law.
Hadisiswoyo also called on the government of Indonesia to implement a moratorium on logging and new permits for palm oil plantations.
Hadisiswoyo’s community engagement in aid of orangutan survival was rewarded at a ceremony in London on Wednesday. His Orangutan Information Centre has worked to engage the local community in the survival of orangutans. Amongst other things, his programme has trained 150 Muslim preachers to use conservation-minded Quranic verses during their sermons.
