The damage could be seen immediately after a motorized wooden boat, carrying eight people, five of them journalists, began wading through the Alas river in Aceh Tenggara regency on Sunday afternoon, May 7.
The boat departed from Salim Pitit village in Babul Rahmah subdistrict, Aceh Tenggara, on a journey to Leuser Research station in Soraya, Subulussalam city. The team chose the river path in order to take pictures of the destruction of the Leuser forest.
The river runs through the Leuser Ecosystem area and passes through Gayo Lues district, Aceh Tenggara, Subulussalam, and Aceh Singkil in Aceh. Much of the river channel is also located along the border of Langkat regency, North Sumatra.
Leuser is a tropical rain forest and water catchment area for millions of people. The area is also home to hundreds of rare animal species, such as elephants, orangutans, rhinoceroses and tigers.
Occupying an area of 2.63 million hectares, the Leuser Ecosystem Area is located in two provinces. About 2.25 million hectares of the ecosystem is located in 13 districts in Aceh with the remaining 384,297 hectares in three districts in North Sumatra.
Located within the Leuser Ecosystem Area is Gunung (Mount) Leuser National Park as well as a nature reserve area, protected forests, production forests, limited production forests, permanent production forests and convertible production forests.
Encroachment
Encroachment has occurred in many parts of the forest including areas within the Gunung Leuser National Park (TNGL). Residents were seen inside the park conducting farming activities. A number of wooden boats were moored by the river and some were seen transporting farm commodities to the village.
A 45-year-old man, Udara, who worked as a rafting coach and lived in Salim Pitit, said the destruction of forests along the river had taken place since the 1990s. In the past, there were dense forest areas but now, they had been replaced with young trees.
"It used to be very beautiful and green. Now it’s become quite arid," Udara said.
In the 1990s, Udara often took foreign tourists on rafting trips along the river. However, now the number of rafting enthusiasts is decreasing due to the damage to the forest, which has caused the water to become turbid and the weather to become hot.
Along the Alas River, forest damage can be clearly seen. The conversion of forests to plantations continues. On the left and right of the river, the hills are bare. Partly burned trees are scattered about and in many locations, many parts of forests have been converted to banana, cocoa, corn, oil palm and other crop plantations.
The head of the Gunung Leuser National Park, Misran, during a discussion on forest management in Banda Aceh in early March, 2017, said about 50,000 hectares of the total area of 870,160 hectares in the national park, had been converted to plantations.
A small portion of that area had been restored by planting trees. "The restoration has been carried out gradually. Leuser must be protected to support the lives of 2.4 million people," he said.
Threats against Leuser come not only from citizens, but also from the government. According to government plans, a geothermal power plant will be built in the main zone of the national park located in the Kappi valley. The Aceh provincial government has proposed changing the function of the zone from protected area to productive zone.
Stopping destruction
Misran said that Leuser\'s destruction must be stopped. The degradation of the Leuser forest threatens human survival. Natural disasters, such as floods and landslides, in some places in Aceh, have occurred due to the decline in the carrying capacity of the environment.
Damage to the Leuser forests also threatens the biodiversity and survival of hundreds of endangered species. Therefore, efforts to stop the destruction of Leuser must be continued. "We are using early protective measures. Once someone enters the area, we immediately carry out operations without waiting for encroachment to occur," Misran added.
The director of Leuser Conservation Forum (FKL), Rudi Putra, said Leuser forest destruction in Aceh had taken place in 13 districts. The five areas with the highest damage are Gayo Lues, Aceh Timur, Aceh Tenggara, Aceh Tamiang and Aceh Selatan. The damage was caused by a range of activities, including illegal logging, land clearing and road construction.
"According to our monitoring, about 24,000 hectares of forest in Leuser are damaged every year," he said.
During 2016, the forum found 1,534 cases of forest encroachment, with about 3,665 cubic meters of illegally cleared forest. FKL also recorded 1,508 cases of encroachment, which covered an area of 9,143 hectares. Not only that, FKL also found 300 development activities being carried out within the Leuser Ecosystem Area.
It is estimated that about 561.75 kilometers of road have been built within the area. FKL also found 300 snares installed within the Leuser Ecosystem Area for animal hunting.
According to Rudi, the government will pay dearly for the damage caused to the region. Floods and landslides have dried up the budget allocated for the repair of damaged infrastructure.
"If the destruction of the Leuser area continues, we must be prepared to lose endangered species, such as tigers, orangutans, rhinos and elephants" Rudi said.
Inside the area are three peat swamps, Tripa, Singkil and Kluet. With a depth of about 12 meters, the swamps serve as places for carbon storage, flood control and have fishery potential.
Finally, the destruction of forests and swamps will affect global climate change. "Leuser is a world asset. Damage to Leuser not only threatens the Acehnese, but also the world community," Rudi said.
