The people have spoken: Tripa peat swamp forest, home of Sumatran orangutans, needs ironclad protection!
#SaveRawaTripa – environmental activists appeal to the forestry authority in Aceh province, Indonesia (© APEL Green Aceh)
608 hectares of peat forest in orangutan habitat were destroyed by two palm oil companies in recent months (© Tim Investigasi Koalisi Selamatkan Lahan dan Hutan Aceh)
Sep 2, 2024
Our partner APEL Green Aceh delivered the petition “Indonesia: Protect the habitat of Tripa’s orangutans!” with more than 65,000 signatures to the government, forestry office, parliament, Indigenous council and police to call for action on the critical state of the Tripa peat swamp forest.
The Tripa peat swamp forest is home to Sumatran orangutans and many other protected wildlife species, as Rahmad Syukur, director of our partner organization APEL Green Aceh, never tires of reminding people.
Tripa is in a critical state and the rate of deforestation for palm oil is alarming. We are therefore doing everything we can to put pressure on the authorities to finally protect Tripa effectively and to finally and definitively revoke the operating permits of the palm oil companies that have concessions on much of the peat swamp forest.
With no time to lose, the Alliance of Environmentalists (APEL) traveled to the provincial capital of Banda Aceh just one month after the petition was launched. There, on September 2 and 3, the Alliance presented the petition, which now has more than 65,000 signatures, to the following five authorities:
- the Governor of Aceh Province
- the Aceh Provincial Department of Environment and Forestry
- the Secretariat of the Aceh Parliament
- the Council of Indigenous Peoples (Majelis Adat Aceh Wali Nanggroe)
- the Aceh Police
“The people who signed our petition expect the Forestry Department to immediately improve the protection status of Tripa and the Forestry Ministry to immediately revoke the operating licenses of the palm oil companies Kallista Alam and Surya Panen Subur, which operate plantations in the protected peat swamp forest,” said Syukur.
The petition was launched after APEL Green Aceh presented evidence that the two palm oil companies had destroyed 608.81 hectares of the protected Tripa peat swamp forest, dug drainage ditches and planted seedlings in the past year and a half – even though one of the companies, Kallista Alam, had been convicted of slash-and-burn practices. Despite this, the companies still have permits to operate on 8,000 hectares in the Tripa protected area, much of which is still forest.
Palm oil from Tripa continues to reach the international market.
“Oil palm cultivation is prohibited in areas with peat soils more than three meters deep,” notes Syukur. “There is no reason why the permits should not be revoked.” Environmentalists do not understand why the forest is being cleared again in full view of the public and the police. In the past few months alone, palm oil companies have cleared several hundred hectares, but the authorities have not intervened.
Orangutans flee from the advancing heavy machinery through the remaining treetops, as documented in this video.
“Peat swamps and peat forests around the world must be protected for the sake of the climate and biodiversity,” says Rainforest Rescue Co-Chair Marianne Klute. She adds that Aceh has a special obligation because the province’s peatlands store a particularly large amount of carbon and are the most important habitat for the Sumatran orangutan.
Two weeks earlier, the Nagan Raya district government had responded positively to the petition, which at the time had 40,000 signatures. We will continue our campaign, taking the petition to Jakarta and Indonesian embassies until we reach our goal.
Please sign and share the petition!
APEL Green Aceh report (in Indonesian): Petisi didukung oleh lebih dari 65.000 orang dari 154 negara diserahkan kepada Pemerintah Aceh, DPRA, Kapolda Aceh dan Wali Nanggroe Aceh
Kontras.net (in Indonesian): Report on handing over the petition to the police
#SaveRawaTripa
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Majelis Adat Aceh Wali NanggroeMajelis Adat Aceh Wali Nanggroe is an institution established after the tsunami under the Helsinki Peace Accords to represent traditional Adat laws and the interests of Indigenous peoples.