Sumatra Island in Indonesia holds the infamous record of the fastest deforestation rate in the world. Measured by surface, half of the palm oil plantations in Indonesia are found here. Indonesian biodiversity is also severely threatened by forest fire, selective logging of wild tree species (sought after for home decoration and furniture) as well as poaching of animals (captured as pet or hunted for their skin or as Chinese traditional medicine ingredients …).
Protected areas have been established throughout the nation. However, some are too small to support sustainable populations of vertebrates. On top of that, little funds are allocated for monitoring and protection and several areas are still being deforested and exploited despite their protected status.
Creating new protected forest areas through acquisition of forest concessions.
Facing an impending disaster, Rimba undertook to tackle the land ownership issue by acquiring protected forests areas to be jointly managed by the government, local population and Rimba in order to protect the resident wild animals and plants.
Improving the quality of the animals’ habitat and reducing forest fragmentation through reforestation.
Rimba is restoring freshly open agricultural land and creating natural wildlife corridors so as to widen the nature reserve, increase the biodiversity and maintain genetically sustainable animal populations to speed up forest regeneration.
Implementing physical protection of existing natural reserves as well as new acquisitions.
The efficiency of a protected area is significantly more correlated to rangers density, the associated dissuasive presence and how clearly protected areas’ boundaries are indicated rather than rangers’ actual power to enforce regulations. So it’s essential to set up forest ranger patrols and visible marking of the reserve’s boundaries.
BENEFITS
Improves how efficiently is protected Muaro Duo natural reserve, which represents itself 55’000 tons of sequestrated CO2 yearly and thousands of animal and vegetal species.
With 1000 trees planted per hectare, assuming a survival rate after 3 years of 70% for each tree and an average absorption of 22,5kgC/tree/year in a tropical setting, the project would account for 16T of CO2 captured per year and per hectare.
Decrease genetical depletion and increase the biodiversity by improving the quality of their habitat.
Speed up forest regeneration by helping large animals to roams over larger territories.
Create a new alternative source of income for villagers thanks to shared tree nursery and workforce required to plant and maintain the seedlings.
Muaro Duo forest belongs to a large forest area spanning over several thousand hectares which has been granted nature reserve status in 2012. Muaro Duo is 430 hectare large and encompasses HL64 zone and more than half of HL345 zone until the road marked in red. It is made of high-quality secondary forest (no intensive exploitation, presence of several emerging trees, presence of animals species usually encountered only in primary forest…).
Map 1. The boundaries of the entire nature reserve (in green). West of the road (red line) : Muaro Duo nature reserve.
Muaro Duo Nature Reserve is one of the rare place in Sumatra where forest still borders the coast, which allows to observe a diversified flora and fauna from the coast borders, lowlands forests, slope forests and ridge forests. Mangroves and submangroves areas add up to the already high biodiversity.
Map 2. The boundaries of Muaro Duo Nature Reserve (in green).
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