VZCZCXRO5920
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #1660/01 1660159
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150159Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5108
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 001660 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS,OES/IET AND OES/ETC 
DEPT PASS USAID: ANE/JWILSON AND EGAT/AGRIMES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TBIO TPHY ID
SUBJECT: ORANGUTAN CONSERVATION INDONESIA 
 
 
1.(U) SUMMARY:  Embassy Jakarta Charge d'Affaires and 
USAID/Indonesia Mission Director led a 9-person U.S. delegation to 
Central Kalimantan province on Indonesian Borneo May 23-25, 2007 to 
monitor progress of the U.S.-funded orangutan conservation programs, 
meet with local government and national park officials, and 
introduce broader assistance for these endangered great apes and 
their habitat.  The trip, guided by renowned orangutan scientist Dr. 
Birute Galdikas, affirmed for USG representatives the serious 
threats to orangutan habitat in Indonesia, and the importance of the 
work undertaken through the USAID Orangutan Conservation Services 
Program (OCSP). 
 
¶2. (U) The group's conclusion is that immediate and critical 
interventions are needed to prevent the conversion of primary forest 
into deforested land and the resulting permanent loss of this 
valuable forest resource and the mega biodiversity it supports.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
Broadening Partnerships for Conservation 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) Indonesia has experienced sharp declines in total orangutan 
population in recent years, driven by forest conversion for palm oil 
plantations, forest fires, logging and mining.  Poor land use 
decisions accelerated the loss of forest habitat, following the push 
toward decentralization and the economic crisis of 1997-1998. 
Second tier threats include hunting and the illicit wildlife trade. 
The decline of this great ape warrants a sense of urgency.  In 
Sumatra, the situation is critical with only 7,000-7,500 orangutans 
surviving in a fragmented forest landscape.  Some 43,000 Bornean 
orangutans remain, but while their numbers are greater than are 
those on Sumatra, they are also at risk being scattered over almost 
50 geographically isolated areas, several of which experts believe 
are unsustainable over the long term.  Recent predictions indicate 
that the orangutan could be virtually extinct by 2050 if current 
trends of habitat destruction and degradation continue unabated. 
 
¶3. (U) Orangutan habitat conservation is a specific priority for the 
U.S. Congress.  USAID has actively promoted this objective in 
Indonesia since 2001, focusing $11.5 million of 
congressionally-directed funding over the period FY2004-2008 as a 
key investment to help Indonesia preserve the world's last two 
remaining areas with significant orangutan populations in the wild: 
the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra. In March 2007, USAID 
initiated a new 3-year $8 million Orangutan Conservation Services 
Project (OCSP) to safeguard stronghold populations by reducing or 
removing current threats and influencing major drivers of those 
threats at specific sites, as well as at the policy and 
institutional levels.  OCSP goals are to reduce threat levels to 
select orangutan populations; mobilize stakeholders at various 
levels around land use policy and decisions; establish improved 
networks among law enforcement and conservation management, and; 
create sustainable financing mechanisms in support of long-term 
conservation at key sites.  Development Alternatives, Inc. 
implements OCSP in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, 
Orangutan Foundation International, and other NGOs. 
 
Local Government Welcomes Park Protection 
----------------------------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) During their visit, the U.S. delegation met with the Regent 
of Kotawaringin Barat District, Mr. Ujang Iskandar, key 
representatives of government agencies including a member of the 
provincial parliament, and military based in the district.  The 
Regent expressed strong commitment to protecting the Park and 
welcomed U.S. collaboration with the regency government to assist in 
its conservation efforts.  Mr. Iskandar emphasized the need for 
coordination among levels of government, as well as prevention of 
encroachments into the Park.  Further, the delegation discussed with 
him the potential for economic development concurrent with orangutan 
conservation, focusing on agriculture and eco-tourism. 
 
Camp Leakey Field Research 
----------------------------------------- 
¶5. (U) The U.S. delegation visited Tanjung Puting National Park 
(TPNP), in Central Kalimantan province, guided by renowned orangutan 
specialist, Dr. Birute Galdikas, and the Head of TPNP, Mr. Bambang 
Darmaja.  Tanjung Puting supports an orangutan population estimated 
at 6,000, making it the second largest single population in the 
world.  At 400,000 hectares of fairly intact habitat, TPNP is home 
to some 180 species of mammals, 17 species of reptiles, and 220 
species of birds.  In 1971, Dr. Birute Galdikas founded Camp Leakey 
in TPNP, naming it after acclaimed scientist Dr. Louis Leakey.  Dr. 
Galdikas was one of three female primatologists mentored and 
supported by Dr. Leakey in the early 1970s (together with Jane 
Goodall, studying chimpanzees in Tanzania, and Dian Fossey, studying 
gorillas in Rwanda).  Challenged by Dr. Leakey to apply modern field 
research methods to orangutan conservation in Indonesia, Dr. 
Galdikas and the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), the 
 
JAKARTA 00001660  002 OF 003 
 
 
non-profit organization she founded, have operated from TPNP's Camp 
Leakey continuously for 36 years.  Dr. Galdikas' work has been 
featured over the years by National Geographic, and her book, 
REFLECTIONS OF EDEN, details the remarkable and substantial 
contributions to orangutan conservation she and OFI have made. 
 
U.S. Programs and Senators Help GOI Halt Logging 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶6. (U) With U.S. support, World Education and Orangutan Foundation 
International have collaborated to further unite the interests of 
the park and nearby villages.  By acting as a bridge between the 
villagers and the park authorities, both the World Education and OFI 
staff provide visible, daily evidence of support for the 
communities.  OFI set up participatory patrolling of the park with 
community members, WE, OFI staff and the national park rangers.  OFI 
established 17 guard posts at strategic locations in the park and 
currently manages patrol operations in cooperation with the national 
park rangers.  Together, OFI and the park rangers provide extensive 
ground coverage and protection to the core of the park.  The U.S. 
delegation spoke with OFI patrol guards at Pondok Tangui guard post. 
 The guards emphasized the importance of the central government's 
crackdown, "Operation Wanalaga," in 2003, in which President 
Megawati, upon receiving a letter from 12 U.S. Senators, deployed 
national police to remove illegal loggers from TPNP.  From that 
point on, the local patrols effectively brought illegal logging to a 
halt in TPNP, an outstanding success that continues to this day. 
 
¶7. (U) The U.S. delegation also visited Kubu Village and Sekonyer 
Village, both located on the edges of the park.  The subdistrict and 
village heads of these as well as other communities surrounding TPNP 
thanked the delegation and USAID for the agricultural assistance 
provided to them through World Education initiatives.  The World 
Education program has improved rice yields up to three-fold and 
greatly improved vegetable, medicinal, rubber, and agroforestry 
yields as well as animal husbandry in neighboring communities.  By 
improving livelihoods and problem solving skills in community 
forums, World Education's activities have reduced the level of 
threat from farming, fires, and hunting inside the Park.  Many 
former illegal loggers who later received natural resources 
education on sustainable forestry management through the World 
Education and OFI programs now either work on park patrols or on 
successful, legally profitable farms outside the park. 
 
¶8. (U) A key threat to TPNP and its orangutan is the proposal by the 
newly created Seruyan district government--whose jurisdiction covers 
the Eastern side of TPNP--to reduce the size of the park and convert 
16,000 hectares inside the park (4% of its total area) to palm oil 
concessions.  Seruyan District also proposes to convert an 
additional 20,000 hectares of orangutan habitat adjacent to the park 
to three palm oil plantations.  The Ministry of Forestry has so far 
refused permission to the Seruyan district.  The Charge d'Affaires 
offered to discuss the pending proposal with the Minister of 
Forestry and to stress the important biodiversity conservation value 
of this primary forest and the negative consequences of its 
conversion.  Given the vast areas of deforested land that are 
available and undeveloped in Kalimantan and Sumatra, there is no 
justification for clearing primary forest for palm oil. 
 
¶9. (U) Indonesia has made considerable progress in combating illegal 
logging in recent years nationwide.  Soon after he became president, 
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared 'war' on illegal logging in a 
November, 2004 speech near Tanjung Puting National Park.  Similar 
commitments were made at the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) 
meeting in January, 2005. In March of that same year a presidential 
decree to stop illegal logging (Inpres 4/2005) was issued, forming 
an 18-agency task force.  The Inpres was followed by "Operation 
Hutan Lestari," a large scale program to address illegal logging. 
Since the President's speech and the Indonesian government's 
follow-up efforts, illegal loggers have left Tanjung Puting and many 
other sites throughout Kalimantan and Sumatra, particularly in 
places with enforcement patrols.  The Ministry of Forestry has 
developed a national orangutan conservation strategy and aims to 
apply it to influence land use decisions.  Other major donors and 
international NGOs are providing assistance to the GOI for forest 
conservation, both focused on specific sites and at the national 
policy level.  The U.S.-supported program is coordinating with the 
GOI and a range of key players in forestry and orangutan 
conservation to ensure maximum synergy and program impact. 
 
¶10. (U) The Charge d'Affairs and Mission Director flew over Tanjung 
Puting National Park to observe the scope and scale of the threats 
to the orangutan habitat.  Illegal logging, slash and burn 
agriculture, and fires have damaged nearly forty percent of the 
park's forests.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that the largest fire 
in all of human history took place there last year.  By boat, the 
delegation also visited zircon sand mining operations on the park 
border that have left vast, deforested areas in places that should 
serve as forest buffer zones.  U.S.-supported OFI park patrols have 
 
JAKARTA 00001660  003 OF 003 
 
 
assured that mining has not spread into the park. 
 
Forest Habitat is Key to Survival of the Orangutan 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶11. (U) The group traveled by boat to Camp Leakey, OFI's base of 
field operations in TPNP.  Camp Leakey offers visitors an 
opportunity to see semi-wild orangutan at close range, as it has 
become a refuge for ex-captive orangutan.  Forest conversion, fires, 
mining and logging have shrunk habitat, leaving many orangutans 
orphaned.  Plantation workers and loggers shoot the mother and 
attempt to sell the baby orangutan.  Officials or concerned 
individuals routinely rescue orphaned orangutans from the illicit 
pet trade.  Indonesia now has over 1,000 orangutan held in various 
forms of captivity, of which a small number are being gradually 
reintroduced into the wild.  The availability of intact forest 
habitat is, however, a severely limiting factor, particularly since 
lowland forest is more easily accessible for logging and conversion 
to palm oil plantations compared to mountainous forest.  However, 
orangutans live in low elevation forest, ideally peat swamp forest. 
Thus, the highest conservation value will result from protecting the 
remaining lowland habitat of populations in the wild, in Tanjung 
Puting and in other key forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra. 
 
¶12. (U) The U.S.-supported Orangutan Conservation Services Program 
(OCSP) will build on previous programs at the site level in 
Kalimantan and Sumatra for sustainable and community-based forest 
management and improved law enforcement.  But since larger threats 
require intervention at the national level, OCSP will also add 
support to GOI policy efforts and coordinate private sector and 
government partnerships to set aside and protect high conservation 
value orangutan habitat.  The program further aims to set up an 
umbrella forum and fund for orangutan conservation, providing 
various groups a neutral focal point for advocacy and long-term 
support toward the common goal of ensuring the long-term survival of 
the orangutan. 
 
COMMENT: (U) USAID's Orangutan Conservation Services Program is a 
crucial part of the U.S. Government's effort to protect and promote 
Indonesia's orangutan population, tropical rainforest and 
biodiversity.  This effort fits into the efforts here to help 
Indonesia cut its greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
HEFFERN