Sumatra Info

Treeflights Sumatra.  The world’s first primate-friendly offset.

Treeflights have partnered with the local community in the village of Bukit Lawang near Gunung Leuser National Park in Northern Sumatra to set up a unique, primate-friendly carbon absorption tree planting project.

Background Info
Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world. Between 2000-2005 an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches was destroyed every hour. Indonesia is second only to Brazil in its holdings of tropical forests; ten percent of the world’s total rainforest grows on the Indonesian archipelago of 13,677 islands. Years of uncontrolled logging are taking their toll and today the country’s once abundant rainforests are rapidly being destroyed. The loss of habitat through deforestation has been catastrophic for many forms of life. The loss of habitats such as the lowland rainforest has dire affects on already endangered species such as the Sumatran orang-utan, Sumatran tiger and the resident Asian elephants.
With their jungle environment burnt and logged and their food sources lost, the Sumatran orang-utan population is declining by as many as 1000 per year. Illegal logging and the deliberate starting of forest fires in order to convert virgin forest to timber and palm oil plantations are
 the main factors responsible for the loss of over 80% of orang-utan habitat over the last 20 years and a list of endangered species which includes 126 birds, 63 mammals and 21 reptiles. Some estimates give the Sumatran orang-utan less than 10 years before extinction from the wild.

Aims of the Project

• Increase available natural habitat to the indigenous wildlife
• Improve ecosystem services (prevention of soil erosion etc)
• Offer an alternative source of income to converting land to palm oil plantations
• Plant trees to withdraw CO2 from the air for air travellers etc.

The Location
Initially we have secured 2 ha of cleared land adjacent to the border of Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) near the village of Bukit Lawang. The National Park itself is almost 8000 km2 in size and is part of a wider national park system called the Tropical Rainforest Heritage site of Sumatra, an area totalling 2.5 million ha. The GLNP is home to a huge diversity of plants and animals including semi wild and wild populations of Sumatran orang-utans (GLNP is one of the last strongholds of this species), Sumatran tigers, almost 200 other species of mammal, 10,000 plant species, and 580 bird species of which 465 are resident and 21 endemic.  A lot of the private land around the park is being turned into oil palm and rubber plantations. Most people aspire to owning plantation of some sort and the threat from large scale organisations could prove to be detrimental to the resident wildlife and the local tourist economy.

Replanting Corridors
Clearly our initial 2 ha is a tiny area in comparison to the area being logged every day. However, we need to begin small to achieve a successful working example for the large areas we intend to buy in the future. Clearing the rainforest means loss of biodiversity of species. Small areas may be too small to support many species, or they may be too far apart to allow easy reproduction of some plants, animals and insects. We seek to replant corridors that connect remnants of forest or increase their size in order to help restore the biodiversity of the whole area as well as the remnant. Planting corridors of rainforest along the rivers and streams can decrease erosion leading to better water quality and provide windbreaks for agricultural activities. Repairing and maintaining existing forest preserves the present ecosystem and can provide an alternative, sustainable income to the local people.

Knowledge of the area
Our success will depend on how well we know the natural environment – soils, climate, height above sea level, rainfall, land forms – and the problems caused by erosion, weeds and loss of fertility, plus an assessment of long term risks. Each environment has a set of species that grow best there and will be most suited to the local soil type, aspect, slope, altitude and drainage. We have been assimilating as much information from locals and further afield about our area and possible tree species’ we can plant before we begin the actual replanting process later in 2008.

Plant Succession
At the edge of a rainforest or inside when an old tree falls and dies it is possible to see ‘plant succession’ in action. On bare ground or at the edge of a rainforest, the first species to grow are the grasses and the broad leafed, non-woody herbs. These are followed by woody shrubs, which are replaced by small hardy trees known as the pioneer tree species which can grow readily in full sunlight. These pioneer tree species provide the shelter required by the secondary tree species
to become established. As the forest matures, many of the pioneer tree species and some secondary are replaced by vines, ferns and other tree species which become established by seed dispersal from nearby rainforest areas.

Sustainable Forest
We are seeking to create an example of a sustainable forest. Our intention is not to dictate to the local populace that they are wrong to rely on an income from plantation. Our intention is to provide an alternative means of income. By planting trees that have a secondary by product such as timber or fruit we hope to provide income by employing local people to help us to plant, maintain and harvest the trees whilst also encourage others to look to alternative sources of income such as long term sustainable forestry rather than clearing land for plantation.