Sumatra diary: elephants, rhinos, coffee and me…
WWF fundraising manager Emily Pringle recently got the chance to see some of our vital global conservation work first-hand when she went on a field trip to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
A lot of the work there is done through community cooperatives supported by WWF. As 2012 is the UN International Year of Co-operatives, it’s also a timely reminder of how crucial these enterprises are for socio-economic development, as well as for conservation.
Day 1 - wildlife, worker co-ops and elephant patrols
At 4am, bleary-eyed but excited, we made our way to Lampung, in the south-west of Sumatra. I’m travelling with lovely WWF colleagues from Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and New Zealand. We’re met by WWF staff based at Lampung and given a fascinating overview of the work being done to help protect Bukit Barisan Selatan (BBS) national park.
WWF’s BBS project leader, Job Charles, tells us how more than 600km2 of this narrow national park has been illegally encroached by farming (coffee and cacao plantations are very common, because chocolate and coffee are booming industries in Indonesia). WWF’s goal is to protect an area nearly six times this size by 2013.
I was shocked to hear that, according to the most recent figures from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and national Rhino Protection Unit (RPU), the park has only a very small number of elephants (500), tigers (50-60) and rhinos (40-60) left in the wild. Key habitat for them in the south has already made way for roads.
I’m still hoping I’ll get to see one of these animals in the wild, but it’s looking doubtful.
It sounds like I’ll certainly be seeing some domesticated elephants - and even riding on one. Elephants like this are a crucial part of local people's daily lives in many parts of Asia - for example as transport through otherwise impassable terrain, or as part of wildlife-spotting eco-tourism, or for poacher-deterring ‘ele-patrols’, as we’ll see later…
We drive to a butterfly park owned by WWF consultant Gita and her mum. It’s absolutely sweltering - must be mid 30s. The refreshing drink and food they provide is a welcome relief. We’re treated to a typical ’gado gado‘ lunch of chicken, rice and salad in a box with add-your-own peanut satay sauce. Delicious!
I’m curious to try some fresh cacao too… although thankfully I’m warned in advance not to bite into it expecting it to taste like chocolate, or I’d have a very bitter taste in my mouth! Instead you chew off the sweet pulp around the seed - it’s quite pleasant.
Then we head off on a walk. The fact that there are so many butterflies here is a good sign, reflecting an area rich in biodiversity.
The Gita Persada Butterfly Park was founded in 1997 to counter the butterflies' extinction. Since then, the park has been successful in conserving more than 160 species of Sumatran butterflies.
On our stroll we see all sorts of weird and wonderful insects - from spiders that resemble starfruit to scary-looking caterpillars. One of the butterflies takes a shine to me and latches on to the back of my neck!
In the afternoon we go on to Kota Agung where we meet up with members of the WWF-funded coffee co-operative KOMIT. We’re given a taste of their local coffee, served hot and sweet - along with more snacks! I’ve quickly learnt that everyone in Indonesia is very welcoming.
WWF provides microfinancing to this cooperative to pass on to farmers to help them increase production and earnings. These are farmers who are farming sustainably and legally, away from areas of the national park that need protecting.
As part of a co-op like KOMIT the farmers have a better bargaining position to sell products. At the moment their coffee is only sold locally but they’re hoping to gain an international market.
One thing that might make this easier is the fact that KOMIT has helped them with the process of becoming certified with the Rainforest Alliance, a well recognised label for ’forest friendly’ products that’s becoming more popular with environmentally-conscious consumers.
The co-op also looks after things like media and communications, as well as supporting the national park authorities to develop the area, and providing training to farmers (including the use of GPS technology). It all means the farmers can focus on what they should be spending their time on - crop production, costs etc.
And the coffee tastes so good I put my order in to buy some!
Next we have a few hours’ drive to the elephant patrol camp. It’s getting dark already, but our driver Maria, from WWF’s Lampung office ,carefully navigates the very bumpy uphill roads to get us there.
It’s well worth it - we’re shown to the brand new shelter they’ve just built to cater for the emerging eco-tourism trade, increasing partly due to a nearby surfing hotspot. It’s also a base for the elephant patrol itself, whose main function is to monitor and report on any illegal encroachment activity, such as farming, in the national park.
We meet some of the elephant patrol team, the ’mahouts‘, who describe over dinner the relationship they have with the elephants they each look after. It’s a very dedicated one because they patrol the national park with them every day, sometimes eight hours at a time, and this partnership will last a lifetime. I ask Ali from the office what qualifications you need to become a mahout, and he replies simply: “Must love elephants!”
I’m getting very excited about my elephant ride tomorrow!
Day 2 - healthy chocolate, homemade hydro power and hungry tigers
What a great start to the day - a walk to a nearby river for a beautiful swim, accompanied by the sound of monkeys in the forest. And when we return to the shelter for breakfast a visitor has turned up - little Tommy, a three-year old Sumatran elephant who’s become part of the elephant patrol family.
A wild elephant, he was orphaned very young and his chances of survival would have been slim. But luckily he came across the patrol elephants and latched onto the girl of the group, Arni. And amazingly she took him under her wing and adopted him as her own - he now follows her everywhere. Aww!
And now the time has come at last for my elephant ride. I’m so eager I’m first up! My elephant is called Karnangin and he only has one tusk. Male Sumatran elephants rarely develop long tusks, and adult female tusks may be so short they’re not visible at all.
After giving the elephants a tasty treat of ripe bananas straight off the tree, we trek for two hours in the baking heat. The eles get to cool down when we cross the river, and of course flapping those big ears of theirs acts like a ready-made fan! They stoop to chomp on the vegetation along the way too.
It’s a weird yet wonderful experience, and we learn lots on our journey.
Not only does the patrol monitor any illegal encroachment activity, but it also works with local people to help them reduce their community’s impacts on the national park, as well as reducing human-wildlife conflict. For example by using the ‘ele patrol’ to keep wild elephants away from their settlements - where they may wander in attracted by food and can cause damage and injury - or occasionally using fires and flares to scare them off.
Wild elephant numbers have been falling dramatically in Sumatra over recent decades - in fact the Sumatran elephant was recently added to the official IUCN list of the country’s ‘critically endangered’ wildlife, joining the tiger, rhino and orang-utan.
The ele patrol also tracks wild elephants to see, for example, if there’s been any reduction in losses from human-wildlife conflict, and if the populations have expanded.
It’s done by installing GPS satellite-transmitter collars (each costing around $5,000) on the elephants. This project started in December 2009 to identify and survey the movement of the elephant population.It’s been reported that, in a one-year operation period the team has observed a group of 16-18 elephants that have made the area its homerange.
The team also recorded around 8-10 new births in May 2010 alone. The team hasn’t found any more elephant deaths resulting from conflict in the area.
There are now about 28-30 wild elephants in a group in the Pemerihan region, where back in 2009 there were only 16. It’s great news, especially as numbers are down to as few as 500 in total in the national park.
After a great (if sweaty) two-hour round trip, we have a quick bite to eat back at the ranch and head out again - this time to check out a field farmer school.
The idea behind this is to help farmers find the best places to farm their coffee and cacao, and to teach them how to farm more effectively - for instance by spotting and treating diseased plants, using the right fertilisers and improving the way they harvest, wash and dry the products.
It’s the first time I’ve seen grafting, where a strong healthy plant is attached to an unhealthy one and overtakes it. This improves both the quality and quantity of plants.
And we’re shown the equipment provided by WWF for the cacao fermentation process.
And we see the compost we’ve shown them how to make so they have their own supply of natural fertiliser for their crops. The farmer uses organic waste and decomposer to accelerate the weathering process - the fermentation takes about 20 days.
The field farmer school usually lasts six months, and so far 450 farmers have taken part in 11 villages since 2009. What happens is a WWF facilitator approaches the farmers and runs education programmes and workshops to help them. They inspect their plants to see if they show signs of pests or disease or show them how these can creep in - which can lower coffee production by up to 60%, or stop growth of cacao completely.
We were shown some examples of diseased plants (see image), and we see write-ups of research and analysis of coffee and cacao trees, and where they’ve applied treatment to some plants but not others (as a control).
There’s then regular observation and monitoring by WWF (every week) to see if there’s been any change or progress. This happens for a minimum of 16 weeks.
Afterwards there’s a noticeable difference in production - in fact there’s been a 300% increase over two years. It means farmers are now getting a better income.
Our last expedition for the day is a 2km walk to a hydro-electric power turbine - which is a great example of WWF helping the villagers to help themselves. We provided the training but they built and paid for the turbine themselves. They raised the total of 32m rupiah needed (around £2,300), from 30 households, and every month gather 10k rupiah (about 70p) from each house for the maintenance costs, earned from the better living they make from their coffee harvest.
And it’s a win-win. The villagers get much-needed electricity, and it means the forest - which might otherwise have been used for providing fuel - is conserved.
On the way back our guide Sutarno points out a couple of things that stay with me and act as a powerful reminder of the challenges of people living side-by-side with nature.
Firstly there’s an area of decimated forest perched on the top of a hill - it shows how eager communities are for land to farm. Secondly there’s the raised and gated goat pen to keep tigers at bay. Only two weeks ago a tiger was spotted here - and it ate two goats. I can’t imagine what it must be like living in such proximity to wild tigers!
Day 3 - rare rhinos, unusual coffee, inspirational women
We are up early and off back on the bumpy dirt track, this time to ‘Rhino Protection Unit camp area 50’ on the border of the national park, next to a limited protected forest.
When we get out of the vehicle there’s a noticeable difference in terrain - the soil underfoot is a deep red colour and we’re handed wellies for traipsing through the mud. It’s not long before we need to put on our jackets as the rain arrives.
After some tea and introductions to the rangers (who are equipped with machetes and rifles!), we head off on a two-hour trek through the jungle.
This used to be rhino territory, hence the name ’rhino camp’. But sadly rhinos haven’t been seen here since 2007. The last rhino to live at the camp, Rosa, unfortunately had to be relocated to the Sumatran rhino sanctuary because she became unafraid of humans, which made her vulnerable to poachers.
After Rosa was moved a big road was constructed - we can hear the traffic noise now from inside the jungle. The road had a big impact on the rhino population, which moved away, and none have been seen here for the past four years. In fact the only wildlife seen in this particular camp now are elephants and tapirs.
Our guides point out markings on some of the trees - trails of mud from where elephants have had a good old scratch against them!
The rangers in this particular region are doing a three-fold job: protecting the national park with guard posts; helping with ecotourism; and of course routine patrols every night, along with the local people, to prevent human-wildlife conflict that could arise with tigers and elephants living so close by.
The guards also go much further afield to survey and patrol the area. There are 28 of them and they do two big patrol trips a month inside the national park, walking 25-40km over 8-10 days per trip. They’re basically looking for encroachment activity and researching animal numbers and their movement.
Plus they monitor a few areas to see if they can be considered ’rhino hotspots'. They divide the area into 'grid' cells, each 8.5km2, and each grid is then surveyed for any signs of rhino presence (footprints, browse marks, faeces and wallows), to establish animal numbers.
WWF has also been helping them instal and monitor camera traps in these hotspots, which are automatically triggered to photograph or film animals as they come near. These traps cost $300US each. It’s only been going six months here and they need $3,000US per month for two teams to monitor them. It’s a far more efficient approach than what they did previously - prior to this rhino patrol units gathered data for the whole park rather than priority areas.
I have a lot of respect for the rangers. Without them the rhino would probably be extinct in this area. Current numbers estimated from the survey in BBS are 40, and we estimate there are fewer than 200 in the whole of Sumatra. There are just 13 grid cells left for the rhino, all in the Bukit Barisan Selatan Nnational Park.
And the rangers’ commitment and bravery is admirable. On their big patrol trips they’ll have to camp outside, sometimes sleeping near the river - which can be very dangerous because of the tigers in the area.
It’s arduous terrain here too, muddy and often steep. We’re slipping and sliding all over the place as we trek in the rain - and of course yours truly ends up falling over! And I haven't even mentioned the leeches...
My highlight of the trip - second only to the elephant ride of course - was this afternoon’s visit to the women’s co-operative. We meet Mrs Dami who runs it. The co-op has been going since 2007 and was WWF’s idea. We also gave them funding and training. There are now 10 women in the co-op and they work a couple of hours a day.
Essentially these women take the coffee beans their husbands have harvested from the farm and turn it into the finished product ready for market - they separate, grind, roast and package it using equipment we’ve provided. We are shown the equipment - it’s impressive. The women help the farmers with their work too and sell the product in the local market.
We also help them promote their products. This all supplements their income, supports the farmers and helps them improve the quality of their product. And it prevents the women from say harvesting illegally from the national park.
The most rewarding outcome to see is that their children can now go to school (even secondary) because of this supplementary income. It also means they can get better food, so their health has improved.
And there’s more promising news. The local government plans to take this model and give funding to other local groups for tools and equipment.
We get a chance to enjoy some of the coffee. This time I try the ‘Kopi Lewak’, otherwise known as civet poo coffee! Yes, gross as it sounds, this coffee really is made from beans that have passed through the civet cat and into their faeces. But it’s actually considered a real delicacy, selling for ten times the price of the normal robusta coffee. And having sampled it I can vouch that it smells and tastes delicious!
Basically the civet cat picks the best coffee beans in the first place, and then does the first part of the harvesting and de-shelling. So it’s far better quality all round.
I hadn’t realised coffee fruit has so many layers before you actually get to the bean - red skin, pulp, shell and then the bean. And there are so many opportunities for it to rot and be thrown away - in fact 70% of coffee is rejected.
For normal (non civet poo!) coffee, pests can infect the bean causing them to go black. Farmers put both the (healthy) red and (infected) black beans in water after harvesting to separate them - the diseased black beans float to the top. Then the skin and pulp is removed, the beans are dried and the shells cracked, they’re washed and dried again until you’re just left with the green bean, ready for roasting. We’ve helped them refine this process too.
All this washing and drying can lead to more rot - for example beans are often dried on the floor close together, leading to fermentation and infections, resulting in poorer quality coffee that yields a lower price.
So you can see why the civet doing the first part of the process makes it so much better! Apparently this natural process has been used for centuries, ever since the Dutch planted coffee on these islands. But sadly opportunism has crept in and civet cats are now kept in captivity in some places for this purpose.
Coffee is only harvested at one point in the year, so another important (and yummy) local income source is honey, which we also sample.
And then it’s time to say our goodbyes We get back into our cars ready for the long trip back, waving to the kids who are home from school and playing footie outside the coffee co-op. I’m sad to say goodbye to my new friends but know we’ll stay in touch.
It’s been a fantastic, fascinating trip and an enlightening experience. It’s also really wonderful to see the huge reach WWF has, and what a difference we’re making to conservation around the world.
You can…
Buy forest-friendly FSC goods to avoid deforestation in places like Sumatra
Adopt an elephant
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