Elephants Threatened by Plantation Expansion

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Elephants graze in May 2019 in the Minas habitat that spans an oil palm plantation and community farm in Rumbai district, Pekanbaru, Riau. The local elephant population has declined to only 25 animals in the last 15 years, and continues to shrink every year due to human encroachment. The Minas elephants are currently listed as extremely critical and could go extinct without government intervention. The Minas habitat is the third largest elephant habitat in Riau, after Tesso Nilo National Park and the Giam Siak Kecil Wildlife Reserve.

JAMBI, KOMPAS — New expanses of land are being cleared in the natural habitat of the sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), narrowing the elephants\' migratory routes and foraging space. As a result, human-elephant conflict (HEC) is recurring and growing worse.

In Tebo regency, Jambi province, human-elephant conflict has occurred in the last four days in two locations, in the villages of Sungai Bengkal and Lingkaran Nago in Tebo Ilir district. Maulana, an oil palm plantation owner in Sungai Bengkal, complained that an elephant herd wandered onto his oil palm plantation on Monday and Wednesday. "The trunks of almost 50 of my oil palms have been damaged. Some were uprooted, others were trampled," he said on Thursday (13/6/2019).

Early on Wednesday morning (12/6), farmers lit firecrackers in their plantations to drive the elephants away. The villagers remain on guard to prevent the elephant herd from returning to their plantations. Maulana said that the herd had been entering the plantation area for the past two years, shortly after the original forest areas were converted.

Jambi Conservation and Natural Resources Agency (BKSDA) Section II head Wawan Gunawan said that he tried to prevent the recurring conflicts by relocating the elephants. In October 2018, one of the four elephants that were found foraging in the area was relocated to the Hutan Harapan ecosystem restoration concession. If the expansion of plantation areas continued, he was sure that similar conflicts would continue to occur.

The forest area in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem has shrunk dramatically. Analyzing satellite imagery shows that 95 percent of the 651,232-hectare ecosystem was still forested in 1985. However, by 2010, forest cover had declined to a mere 49 percent, inclusive of national parks, production forests and forest areas with other purposes. The elephant population, which numbered more than 400 in the 1980s, has declined drastically to only around 140 elephants today.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Only plant debris remains on Monday (3/6/2019) after a herd of wild elephants foraged a banana plantation that belongs to the residents of Maharatu village in Rumbai district, Pekanbaru, Riau. The elephants came from the Minas habitat in Siak, where their natural habitat is shrinking due to forest conversions into plantations and human settlements.

Spreading

The elephant population in Riau, which numbers more than 200, is spreading out in several pockets. The largest habitat is the Tesso Nilo National Park (TNTN), which spans Pelalawan regency in Indragiri Hulu and Kuantan Singingi. Three or four herds totaling around 150 elephants live in the 83,000-hectare conservation forest.

Human activity has encroached into the park, of which only 15,000 hectares remains today. Tens of thousands of people live in the center of the TNTN, which they have converted into oil palm plantations and settlements.

A second pocket of 50-60 elephants lives in the Giam Siak Kecil (GSK) Wildlife Reserve in Bengkalis regency. Only 40 elephants originally lived in the GSK, but 19 other elephants migrated at the end of 2016 from the Balai Raja Wildlife Reserve in Mandau district, Bengkalis.

The Balai Raja reserve, which was originally 18,000 hectares, now covers only 250 hectares due to the encroachment of oil palm plantations and human settlements. Only six elephants remain in the reserve.

The elephants’ migratory routes also shrank when the Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road was built. In response, the Public Works and Housing Ministry has agreed to build a toll road underpass as an “elephant lane”.

What remains unresolved is the Bengkalis regency’s ring road project in Mandau district, which has cut off the elephants’ migratory route in the Balai Raja reserve. BKSDA Riau head Suharyono said he had rejected the road project.

The third pocket of elephants is in Minas, bordering the three Riau regions of Siak regency, Pekanbaru city and Kampar regency. The only remaining tract of primary forest is the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Forest Park (Tahura) on the Pekanbaru-Siak border. The park, which was originally 6,000 hectares, now covers only 1,500 hectares. Almost all elephant habitats in the forest have been converted into oil palm plantations, farms and human settlements. As a result, only 11 elephants remain today out of the 25 elephants that lived in the park in 2004.

KOMPAS/SYAHNAN RANGKUTI

Two men look at what remains of a banana plantation in Maharani village, Rumbai district, Pekanbaru, Riau, Monday (3/6/2019). Banana plants are among the major food sources of wild elephants. The elephants’ natural forest habitat is limited, as the forest has been converted into oil palm plantations and community farms.

"We don\'t have the resources. We [have no choice but] to prioritize the conservation of elephants in the bigger pockets," said WWF Riau’s Febri A. Widodo, referring to the TNTN.

Victimizing elephants

In 2019, at least 10 cases of human-elephant conflict occurred in South Sumatra, the majority of which occurred in the Gunung Raya region of South Ogan Komering Ulu regency.

The elephants were victims in the conflicts that occurred in the Elephant Training Center and the Isau-Isau Nature Reserve Forest in Bukit Serelo, Lahat. Eight out of 10 elephants were driven from their habitat when the residents of Padang Baru hamlet claimed the land. Four elephants fell ill, presumably due to poisoning.

BKSDA South Sumatra head Genman Suhefti Hasibuan said on Thursday that the elephant population in South Sumatra was 178. This includes 40 tame elephants that live along the border of Banyuasin-Ogan Komering Ilir and Lahat. The remainder are wild elephants that live in habitats across several regions.

(ITA/SAH/RAM)