| A Gift Of Hope | ||||
|
|
The Harapan Rainforest Initiative gets a major boost courtesy of a US$3 million donation by Singapore Airlines. ARTI MULCHAND follows the progress of this landmark conservation programme in the tropical wilds of Sumatra.
A researcher by one of the lakes in Harapan Rainforest. Deep in the Harapan Rainforest (which means ‘hope’ in Bahasa Indonesia), in a 100,000-hectare tract straddling Indonesia’s Jambi and South Sumatra provinces, 40-year-old Rusman Bin Zen stands sentry, watching over this threatened habitat. Pak Rusman is one of 800 members of the forest’s remaining indigenous people, the Bathin Sembilan. For generations, the Bathin Sembilan’s family groups, or guguk, have lived in the rainforest, fishing in its rivers, harvesting rattan, resin and honey, both for their own survival and some small-scale trade. Until recently, however, both the Bathin Sembilan and their rainforest habitat have been losing a two-decade-long battle against more commercial – and often illegal – interests. Already, the hamlet of Penyerukan which Pak Rusman calls home in Tanjung Lebar, on the rainforest border, has been occupied by an oil palm plantation. The encroachments not only rob the Bathin Sembilan of their homes and livelihoods, they also deprive the planet of its crucial “lungs”. It is a well-known fact that the earth’s rainforests are among its chief carbon stores, and deforestation alone accounts for 17 per cent of carbon emissions. Overlogging and conversion to agriculture have also threatened the Harapan Rainforest’s rich wildlife, which includes more than 290 bird species, including the rhinoceros hornbill and rufous-collared kingfisher, and 56 mammal species, such as the critically-endangered Sumatran Tiger, Malayan Tapir and Clouded Leopard. Indonesia’s islands may cover just one per cent of the world’s land area, but the biodiversity in its lowland forests rivals that of the Brazilian Amazon. RECLAIMING THE RAINFOREST Now, Pak Rusman and the rainforest are taking a stand, and they’re backed by the Harapan Rainforest Initiative, a massive rainforest ecosystem restoration project spearheaded by a BirdLife International consortium including Burung Indonesia and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. As one of the world’s first rainforest protection and restoration concessions of its type, Harapan covers an area of almost 100,000 hectares, or about one-and-a-half-times the size of Singapore. Harapan represents a fifth of the mere 500,000 hectares of lowland forests that are left standing in Sumatra, where the forests are regarded as the most threatened. Right now, plant species native to the site are being replanted, and Pak Rusman along with 100 other members of Bathin Sembilan and other local communities have been deployed and trained as round-the-clock forest patrols to keep a watchful eye on the flora and fauna.
TAKING HOPE TO NEW HEIGHTS With the foundation laid, Harapan recently received a tremendous boost in the form of a US$3 million donation from Singapore Airlines in August this year. The contribution allows for the creation of the Harapan endowment fund, which is crucial to the continuity of the project – providing legs to an initiative that, in its first three years, has already begun to make a difference. Drawing on the field skills of Pak Rusman and his tribe, already the number of forest fires, as well as incidences of illegal logging and poaching, have decreased. In its early years, the fund will pay for forest restoration and the creation of sustainable livelihood projects for local communities. It will also put in place support systems for healthcare for the area’s local communities, along with education and research into wildlife conservation and reforestation, says Yusup Cahyadin, head of the Harapan Rainforest Management.
This is Singapore Airlines’ first long-term investment in a global green project, though it is not the first time the airline has been courted for “green” funding. So why this, why now? There was something about the Harapan project that stood out when the consortium first approached the Airline in 2007, says Bey Soo Khiang, Singapore Airlines’ Senior Executive Vice-President Marketing and Corporate Services. It was a chance for the Airline to make a real and direct difference. “Being close to Sumatra means that we could go down to the ground, participate, and track progress. That was very different from just making a donation to middlemen for projects that are far away. Quite often they are just asking for money and they take it from there, so you’re unsure of how your money would be used, and if there will be tangible results,” recalls Mr Bey. Mr Bey and three colleagues from the Airline also made a trip to the site in late 2008, where they witnessed first-hand what the project had accomplished and what more could be achieved. What greeted them was a mix of members from the Bathin Sembilan and other local groups, as well as experts from BirdLife International, who acquainted them with the work being done on the ground. This essentially involved rehabilitating tracts of forest that had been previously destroyed, while introducing measures to preserve the relatively intact parts of the forest. Singapore Airlines also recognised that involvement in the Harapan project could have a major impact closer to home. Almost annually, slash and burn activities in neighbouring countries have clouded the region in a smoke haze. “If we can prevent those forest fires, it means that the impact of the haze would go down,” says Mr Bey, adding that a real difference can only be made by getting to the root of the problem. Mr Bey emphasised that the Airline’s commitment to Harapan is for the long haul, and that it hopes to eventually get its staff and customers involved in the project through initiatives that could range from ecotourism to regular updates. HOPE AND BEYOND The hope is that Harapan will serve as the model for forest restoration and wildlife conservation, sustainable local development and combating climate change around the world. Currently, Harapan forms the prototype of BirdLife’s Forests of Hope programme, which aims to create successful forest conservation and management programmes elsewhere, such as in the Philippines, Ecuador and Fiji. Says Dr Roger Safford, senior programme manager at Birdlife International: “We have come to realise that on a global level we’re not doing enough because deforestation is going on and forest cover is decreasing. We have got to find ways to scale up what we are doing. We need to collaborate, share experiences, and start to think in terms of millions of hectares rather than thousands.” With tropical forests storing twice as much carbon as temperate forests, their conservation is central to the world’s efforts to combat climate change. They are the most ecologically rich of all forest types and house 70 per cent of the world’s plants and animals – more than 13 million species – and contain 30 per cent of all bird species, and 90 per cent of invertebrates. Certainly, there has never been a more urgent time to arrest the damage being inflicted on these precious resources. And Harapan signifies the first crucial step in that direction. Visit harapanrainforest.org or www.birdlife.org/forests to learn more about the project. COURTESY CLARE KENDALL, RSPB-IMAGES.COM / DAVID LEE / KIM SORENSEN / SRI MADIYANINGRINISource: SILVERKRIS
Comments (0)
Write comment |
