The Tesso Nilo Conservation

Landscape, Sumatra, Indonesia

Fifty years ago, Sumatra was covered by millions of hectares of rainforest that reached across
the entire length of the island. Today, the lowland rainforests are almost entirely gone,
converted to oil palm and pulp wood plantations and replaced by agriculture. A few forest
tracts still exist in Sumatra's central province of Riau. One of them, the Tesso Nilo forest, has
one of the highest vascular plant diversities known to science and is one of the few remaining
safe havens for the threatened Sumatran elephant. WWF aims to halt the rapid destruction of
the 188,000-hectare Tesso Nilo forest. Together with an alliance of local and international
non-governmental organizations WWF tries to secure Tesso Nilo within a 3 million ha
conservation landscape that would be anchored by four additional protected areas, Bukit
Bungkuk, Bukit Rimbang Baling, Bukit Tigapuluh, and Kerumutan. WWF is implementing
plans that would protect the remaining forests and their wildlife through re-zoning and
improved law enforcement, and that would benefit local communities through reduced
conflicts with elephants and tigers, increased yields from their agricultural enterprises, and
new employment opportunities. This conservation landscape contains montane, lowland, and
peat swamp habitats that are among the few remaining homes for the Sumatran elephant, the
Sumatran tiger and many others of Sumatra’s spectacular wildlife species.

WWF Indonesia became active in the Tesso Nilo Conservation Landscape (Fig. 1) in 1993 when
it asked for the establishment of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. The park was declared in 1995
and WWF has been involved in community development and/or tiger protection programs there
ever since. In February 1999, WWF started promoting the Tesso Nilo Forest as a safe haven for
one of Sumatra's dwindling elephant populations under the WWF Asian Rhino and Elephant
Action Strategy (AREAS) Program. In March 2001, a workshop of over 250 stakeholders from
all layers of society voiced overwhelming support for the protection of the Tesso Nilo forest as
an elephant forest. In May 2001 and again in May 2002, WWF and Indonesia’s national
conservation authorities (Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation at the
Indonesian Ministry of Forestry) proposed Tesso Nilo as a national park. Until today, heavy
lobbying by the timber industry has kept the Indonesian government from declaring Tesso Nilo a
protected area. Tesso Nilo would be part of a 3 million ha conservation landscape that would
represent a cross-section of some of Sumatra's most important habitats, from montane forests in
the west via lowland forests to peat swamp forests in the east. Wildlife corridors would allow the
elephants and tigers secured in the park to move freely between reserves, including Kerumutan,
Rimbang Baling and Bukit Bungkuk Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park (Fig.
2). Re-establishing all corridors will not be easy, but surveys have shown that it could be
possible through forest rehabilitation and redesign of existing acacia and oil palm plantations.

WWF is promoting the protection of the Tesso Nilo forest as a national park in a complex matrix
of negotiations with communities; government at all levels; and several logging, pulp-and-
paper, and oil palm companies, and their investors and customers around the globe. Two

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multinational pulp-and-paper conglomerates operating there are heavily in debt, following a
dramatic expansion of their facilities in a time of falling pulp prices. Only when the oversized
mills run at capacity do the companies have a remote chance to service their debt. About 70% of
their pulp is made with wood from the area’s mixed tropical hardwood forests. Only a small
fraction of the pulp is produced with plantation wood, and even these plantations not long ago
were natural forests with some of the highest plant diversities on the planet. The companies need
the wood as they failed to secure adequate supplies from own plantations when they expanded
their mill capacities.

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Central and Southern Sumatra moist forests
Central and Southern Sumatra montane forests
Mentawai Islands moist forests
North North Sumatra - Nicobar Islands moist forests
Sumatera SINGAPORE Northern Sumatra limestone forests
Riau
Northern Sumatra montane forests
Pekanbaru
%
[ Peninsular Malaysia freshwater swamp forests
0o
Peninsular Malaysian moist forests
Peninsular Malaysian montane forests
Tesso Nilo Sumatra freshwater swamp forests
West Sumatra peat swamp forests
Sumatera

Jambi

Fig. 1.—The Tesso Nilo Conservation Landscape touches the Sumatran montane (blue), moist
(green) and peat swamp (purple) eco-regions.

In its search for wood, the RGM/APRIL conglomerate began clear-cutting in Tesso Nilo, the
nearest surviving forest block to their mill. The clearing started in July 2001 after WWF had
proposed the Tesso Nilo forest as a protected area. After negotiations with WWF and Friends of
the Earth, the company stopped the clear-cutting and issued a temporary logging moratorium for
the Tesso Nilo core forest. In August 2002, APRIL committed to no longer purchase any timber
sourced from Tesso Nilo and to close its ferry operations, one of the main exit roads from Tesso
Nilo, to trucks carrying illegal logs.

Tesso Nilo actually is a perfect example of the usual cycle of forest destruction in Indonesia:
First, a company applies to government for a license to selectively log an area ( e.g. Hutani Sola
Lestari, co-owned by RGM). It then exports the timber or supplies saw or plywood mills (e.g.
RGM’s mill near Pekanbaru, Riau). The logging is well regulated. Indonesia's forest
management system theoretically allows the forest 35 years to recover. However, some
companies intentionally overlog an area. An application is then submitted to government for the
area to be declared a so-called “wasteland” that is no longer fit to be a forest and can be
converted to plantations. Government officials often allow such a change of status, and a sister
company of the original logging firm applies for the license to convert that new "wasteland"
forest to either oil palm (e.g. RGM co-owned Indosawit) or acacia pulp wood plantation (e.g.
RGM co-owned APRIL which now operates acacia plantations on former Hutani Solar Lestari

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concessions). Whichever plantation it will be, the remaining trees are removed and go to a pulp
mill, more often than not, yet another member of the same conglomerate (e.g. RGM co-owned
RAPP). Then either oil palm or acacia plantations are established, the products of which go to the
respective mills. At current rates of destruction, a World Bank study estimated that most of
Sumatra's lowland forests will have disappeared by 2005!

Bukit 102oE
Bungkuk
Reserve
Proposed Tesso Nilo
Protected Area
Kerumutan
Wildlife
0o Sanctuary

Bukit
Rimbang
Baling
Wildlife
Sanctuary

recently cleared areas

opened forest
closed forest
grass, shrub
short-term crops
mixed tree garden
rice fields
oil palm plantation Bukit Tigapuluh
rubber plantation National Park with
acacia plantation
settlements potential no-conversion
water bodies buffer zone

Fig. 2.— Land use in Tesso Nilo Conservation Landscape in 2001, with one proposed and
four existing reserves, remaining wildlife corridors and their breaks in connectivity, and one
newly to be created elephant corridor.

The 3 million ha “Tesso Nilo Conservation Landscape” would link prime habitats of two of
Sumatra's flagships species: the severely endangered Sumatran tiger and the threatened Sumatran
elephant. It would provide them with habitat large enough to maintain viable populations in a
network of protected areas. WWF’s Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS) came
to Riau because its elephant population was dwindling. Elephant habitats were becoming more
and more fragmented. Elephants were invading people's fields and plantations and were being
killed or captured as a result. In May 2002, a herd of 17 elephants was poisoned in a community
oil palm plantation. Herds of sometimes five or ten elephants are being captured and the few who

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manage to survive the ordeal spend the rest of their life in camps. Tesso Nilo's stakeholders,
from the communities living in the area up to the local and regional authorities, called for the
forest to be protected because a secure forest home would help preclude the worsening human-
elephant conflict.
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Fig. 3.-- Riau Government’s 2015
proposed land use vision for the Tesso
Nilo Conservation Landscape. Green are
0o natural forests, blue are acacia pulp wood
plantations, yellow are oil palm
plantations. To produce this vision, the
protection status of each block of natural
forest was “zoned down”, e.g. selective
logging forest would become eligible for
conversion to plantations, protection forest
would become selective logging forest, etc.

Supporters of a Tesso Nilo National Park, including local farmers, expect WWF to develop a
comprehensive human-elephant conflict (HEC) mitigation strategy for Tesso Nilo and possibly
even for the whole province of Riau. WWF believes that the best HEC mitigation strategy is to
first secure as much elephant forest as possible and then reduce HEC at the interface between
forest and agricultural lands. WWF is developing an HEC masterplan that suggests the
establishment of professionally trained elephant “chase teams” (short-term), the building of
fence/trench elephant barriers (mid-term), and a change in land use that would locate acacia
plantations rather than oil palm plantations next to natural forest (long-term). WWF is working
closely with communities and the major plantation companies in Tesso Nilo’s buffer zone to
bring about these changes. The response so far has been very positive.

In 2002, WWF decided to fully integrate tiger conservation activities with the ongoing elephant
and forest protection programme in this
landscape. Surveys had shown that dozens of
tigers had been killed in the area since 1998
and that an increasing number of people were
being killed by tigers. Human-tiger conflict
was developing into a major issue.

Main Issues

Forest conversion is the ultimate threat to

all natural forests in the Tesso Nilo
Conservation Landscape. Once converted
the forest is gone forever. Conversion is
driven by two main factors at this time:

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 The desperate need of two of the world's biggest pulp mills to generate cash. They need to
feed their shredders with natural wood because they do not have enough plantation wood and
because natural wood is cheaper than any other fiber source available to produce pulp.

The desire of people to easily generate regular income from oil palm plantations. The only
land cheaply available is natural forest.

Rampant and un-regulated logging is a

severe threat to the integrity of the forests.
While WWF’s biodiversity surveys have
shown that even heavily logged sections of
Tesso Nilo have a species composition similar
to that of the original forests, only immediate
protection would give these forests the time to
grow back to close to their original state.
Logging is driven by one main factor at this
time:
It is the easiest way to make money in a time
when the country's regulatory and enforcement system is in total disarray and standing trees are
the most readily available resource that can be converted to cash.

Human Elephant Conflict is the single biggest

direct cause of elephant mortality and the
resulting decline of elephant populations. It is
driven by two main factors at this time:

 Dramatic reduction of habitat that has left

elephants with not enough natural food and the
need to search for food in agricultural and
plantation areas.

 Planting of highly palatable agricultural or

plantation crops next to forests that “pull” elephants out of the forest for feeding even though
there might be enough natural food left in the forest.

Tiger poaching and revenge killings are the most

important threat to the remaining tiger population.
The illegal killings are driven by:

High market prices for illegally killed tigers and a law

enforcement system that does not discourage poachers
from repeated offences.

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Dramatic reduction of habitat that has left tigers with not enough natural food and the need to
search for food in agricultural and plantation areas, where they are more likely to encounter
people.

Immediate Objectives

The fast pace of land use changes has prompted these main objectives to save the Tesso Nilo
Forest and its elephants and tigers.

• Prevent any further conversion of forest to

wasteland, or to any type of plantation or
agriculture.
Î That would save the forest.

• Reduce the selective felling of trees.

Î That would allow the forest to recover to close
to its original primary state.

• Change the land use pattern so crops that

elephants like are not planted next to the forest.
Î That would make it less attractive for elephants
to raid the crops and get killed in the process.

• Introduce non-removal Human-Wildlife Conflict mitigation techniques in the agricultural

landscape.
Î That would result in fewer elephants and tigers being shot, poisoned, captured or
otherwise removed from the gene pool.

• Improve law enforcement through increased surveillance, apprehension and prosecution.

Î That would result in fewer poachers going after trees, elephants, and tigers.

I
Several conservation interventions are in place at this time to achieve these objectives; others
still need to be implemented or designed. Interventions reach or will reach from targeted
advocacy to media campaigns, from regulatory changes to improved land-use planning, from
revival of law enforcement to introduction of environmental education curricula, from
establishment of "best practices" in agriculture and forestry to alternative income generation. All
interventions are, or will be custom-tailored to the respective target group, from individual
‘kingpins’ in the illegal logging trade to global corporations, from governments to villages, from
powerbrokers to the general public.

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Overall Goal

The primary objectives would contribute

to the overall goal of establishing Tesso
Nilo as an effectively managed protected
area, connected by forested corridors to a
network of other protected areas. This
conservation landscape would present a
large cross-section of some of Sumatra's
most important ecosystems: montane,
lowland, and peat-swamp forests, and
would serve as an all-important water
catchment area for Riau's ever-growing
towns downstream. The protected area
network would anchor a landscape that
would be sustainably managed by
reducing human-wildlife conflict,
reducing human impacts on the natural
forest, establishing fair markets for the
products of communities living around
the forests, and establishing "best
management practices" in acacia and oil
palm plantations and selective logging
industries.

Calls for Action

WWF calls on these main players to work together to save Tesso Nilo, its wildlife, and the
region’s other high conservation value forests:

• The Government of Indonesia should declare the whole Tesso Nilo forest as a protected area
and ensure that it is effectively managed. GoI should help create wildlife corridors that link
Tesso Nilo and the other existing protected areas and ensure their full protection. GoI should
develop, communicate, and enforce a clear policy that protects all high conservation value
forests. WWF is prepared to help develop that policy and provide tools for the identification of
high conservation value forests.

• Riau's provincial and district governments should review land-use plans to prevent further
conversion of high conservation value forests and ensure that the province’s natural resources are
developed sustainably. WWF is prepared to help develop new or re-design existing land use
plans in partnership with government authorities and other stakeholders.

• Riau's pulp and paper industry should protect the high conservation value forests within
their concessions and those of all their suppliers, operate within the limits of clearly defined legal
and environmentally and socially sustainable wood supply plans, and ensure sound forest

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stewardship in the plantations from which they source the fibre for their paper. WWF is prepared
to work with the industry to develop the relevant management practices.

• Financial Institutions and Banks who invest in the pulp and paper industry in this region
should ensure that their investments are not being used to support the conversion of forests of high
conservation value or the violation of traditional land rights. WWF is prepared to assist financial
institutions and banks to develop their forest investment policies and criteria and to advise on future
investments in the sector.

• Customers of products from this region should ask for environmentally sustainable
manufacturing processes so their purchases do not lead to the destruction of more natural forest
and the deaths of elephants and other wildlife. WWF is prepared to advise companies in the
development of sustainable procurement policies.

We are the voice of these stakeholders…

Conservation Partners

WWF offices in Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the
United States, and at WWF International are working together to secure the Tesso Nilo
Conservation Landscape.

WWF collaborates with government, industry, and non-governmental organizations to conserve

Riau’s forests, tigers, elephants and other wildlife. Community organizations, the Riau NGO
Alliance “Jikalahari”, the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund, DFID, the Rumbai Ecology
Club, the Sall Family Foundation, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are some of WWF’s
main partners in this program.

Credits: Remote Sensing, GIS, maps: Martin Hardiono; Indian elephant tusker: Christy Williams, tiger: WWF Nepal Programme
; Sumatran elephants in oil palm plantation: Samsuardi; aerial photo of forest: Hank Hammatt, dead elephant: Samsuardi, tiger
scull: WW, all others: Michael Stuewe.

WWF Indonesia ARETAS Riau Programme, Sumatra, Indonesia, 5 June 2003 (MichaelStuewe@yahoo.com)

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