Eyes on the Forest, a conservation coalition, has released a research report on the clash between commercial logging and Sumatran tigers living in forests clear cut by the paper industry.
Their analysis shows that most of the tiger – human violence occurring in Sumatra has taken place near areas being deforested by Asia Pulp and Paper. Over the last 12 years, 55 people and 15 critically endangered Sumatran tigers have lost their lives in the violence. Seventeen of the tigers have been captured alive.
Johny Mundung, of Walhi Riau, an EoF coalition member stated, “APP has recently made ridiculous public claims that it is leading tiger conservation in the area, when in fact it is jeopardizing the safety of local communities and pushing the tigers closer to local extinction. Global paper buyers should not be fooled: APP destroys forests and wildlife.”
Fewer than 400 Sumatran Tigers are left in the wild forests. The number of breeding pairs may be unknown. A serious infectious disease could wipe out the whole population. The large cats also need enough space to find food to maintain a healthy state in order to breed and bear healthy offspring. No one seems to know how many living wild tiger cubs there are left in Sumatra. Island relatives of the Sumatran tiger are all extinct: the Bali, Java, and Trinil. The last
Bali tiger was shot in the wild in 1937.
Eyes of the Forest states that Asia Pulp and Paper cleared 2.5 million acres of wild forests to make pulp for paper products since 1980. Riau province has lost over 50% of its wild forests in the last 25 years. Wild elephants there are also at risk of extinction. A different report last year found drew similar conclusions about both Sumatran tigers and elephants: “We found that Sumatra’s elephants and tigers are disappearing even faster than their forests are in Riau. “This is happening because as wildlife search for new habitat and food sources, they increasingly come into conflict with people and are killed.” stated Dr. Susan Lieberman, a program director for WWF’s international species.
APP is one of the largest paper companies in the world and produces 5 million tons of paper and packaging materials annually. The company has been convicted of illegal logging in Indonesia, China and Cambodia. Due to some of their illegal and environmentally damaging actions several very large companies have discontinued selling their products, such as Staples, Office Depot and Wal-Mart.
The research into causes of the interspecies conflict was gathered by WWF-Indonesia, Riau University, the Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program and EoF.Eyes on the Forest is a coalition of 25 environmental NGOs in Riau, including Riau Forest Rescue Network “Jikalahari”, Walhi Riau and WWF-Indonesia.
Image Credit: World Wildlife Fund, Indonesia
This is horrific! When we know better, we should do better. They know better and it’s time for this to stop. WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Make paper from hemp, and we won’t need to cut down the forest.
Awesome..
That is a shame, shame on me, i’m indonesian.
Too much corruption in Indonesia, cut down the trees is permitted as long as the cutter give “them” some money
i hate people that do this to animals. only people that are ******* idiots would agree with this crime. poachers are stupid cruel people and should have the same fate that those poor animals had onto them.
it is time to take a stand and stop this madness because only we can. wake up and smell the roses people
if u agree with this crime u are mentally troubled and should see a counseler for this; that means u john
plez just remember this because it is important
and as always is important thank you
Agreed that this is absolutely terrible but I actually work with APP on their sustainability initiatives and I know that they have put huge efforts into the Senepis sanctuary and the Giam Siak Kecil reserve – which btw is massive. It’s easy for NGO’s to say it’s APPs fault but in reality poverty is a massive cause of poaching and illegal logging. It’s about time APP got some encouragement when it does some good. I know from experience that they are making major efforts and investments in sustainability and if they were a western company they would be getting a lot of credit. Who else is actually putting money into sustainability in Indonesia instead of moaning about it? It’s about time people stopped criticising them and it’s about time western NGOs stopped telling outright lies about them to score cheap political points.
People cut forests and thus threaten the habitat of tigers, so it is inevitable that there is a conflict, but the tigers still in the end hurt. But it’s not people who cut trees on Sumatra fault, they just trying to feed their family’s the best way to know. It is fault of big companies from the west, which are used to maximum without taking into consideration the living world of Sumatra.