 conservation action and protected areas
In all, around 180,000 km² of land is protected throughout Sundaland, representing 12 percent of the hotspot's total land area. However, only 77,000 square kilometers of this land (5.2 percent of the hotspot) is in protected areas in IUCN categories I to IV. Furthermore, the tendency throughout the hotspot has been to protect the least threatened, least used, and least valuable habitats, such as upper montane forests. The more diverse and important lowland forests are under-represented in the protected areas system and vulnerable to agricultural and timber development.
There is also wide variation in the actual levels of protection and management among parks and reserves. Some, such as Kinabalu in Sabah, Gunung Gede Pangrango in Java, and Hala-Bala in Thailand are well protected; others, such as Kutai National Park, have been entirely deforested through the effects of logging, drought and fire. To ensure long-term conservation, parks and reserves require effective implementation and enforcement of their protected status, as well as understanding and pride among the people of the region. At the same time, because of the high population density and growth rate within the hotspot, long-term, sustainable conservation will require a focus on social and economic development, education, and public awareness.
On Borneo, transboundary conservation areas, or peace parks, are being promoted as a form of international cooperation and ecosystem protection. For example, the Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and the Batang Ai National Park in Sarawak are contiguous with the Gunung Bentuang and Karimun reserves in Kalimantan. Together they encompass a total of nearly 8,000 km² of protected forestland. Other important clusters are Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, Belum National Park, and Temengor Forest Reserve between Malaysia and Thailand.
Initiatives are also under way to expand existing in-country protected area networks. In 2004, the Indonesian government made a commitment to create 12 new protected areas. One of these was the Tesso Nilo/Bukit Tigapuluh landscape in central Sumatra, where the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is supporting a corridor-level initiative to link four existing protected areas and one new protected area into a three-million-hectare haven of lowland forest. Such collaborative conservation efforts increase the effective size of protected areas to a great extent, but can only be effective in the long term if management strategies deal with the socio-economic and political drivers of land-use change. WWF-Indonesia is currently implementing two major initiatives within Tesso Nilo National Park with support from CEPF: the first involves protecting tigers from the wildlife trade, while the second involves developing and implementing a community based conservation plan.
The Indonesian government is implementing policies to promote conservation. The central government is currently promoting a new policy to reduce the number of existing logging concessions by half. Some of these cancelled or abandoned concessions have been converted to protected areas, such as the Sebangau area in Central Kalimantan, while others will be designated for sustainable forest harvesting programs. In addition, a new policy allows for protected area creation by local governments rather than just the national government; this model, which promotes local ownership and stewardship, has already been used to create protected areas. For example, the 108,000 hectare Batang Gadis National Park, in northern Sumatra, was established as a locally managed protected area in early 2004. In May of the same year, the Ministry of Forestry declared the area a national park. Four local NGOs are currently working to develop biodiversity-friendly economic activities, and to involve communities adjacent to the park in management and conservation activities. CI is playing a coordinating role in the management of this park.
In central Sumatra, at Bukit Bahar, BirdLife Indonesia, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the BirdLife International secretariat, and the Global Conservation Fund at Conservation International are pursuing another novel initiative by trying to acquire the rights to manage a logging concession, and establishing an endowment to ensure management in perpetuity. Not only would this be the first forest concession in Indonesia to be managed by an non-governmental organisation, but it would be the first license issued for the Indonesian government’s far-sighted new legislation for concessions with solely conservation and restoration aims. This project will be an important test of the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of this as an alternative to conventional protected areas.
All of these efforts aid in safeguarding biodiversity. However, existing resources are inadequate to protect all forested areas and other natural habitats, leading to a need for prioritisation. One way of ensuring that the network of protected areas adequately conserves biodiversity is through the conservation of Key Biodiversity Areas, sites holding populations of globally threatened or geographically restricted species. In Sumatra, Conservation International-Indonesia and partners are in the process of identifying, delineating, and prioritizing among Key Biodiversity Areas.
Wildlife Conservation Society—Indonesia, in collaboration with CI and local partners, is conducting an analysis of forest cover change in Sumatra over the past 10 years using remotely sensed data. With many years of investment in conservation research, community outreach, and training, WCS is poised to take their conservation activities to a new level through their Conservation Action Network Program, Indonesia (CANOPI). This program allows a broad network of local and international conservation groups to exchange information, coordinate field activities, and develop sustainable financing for protected area management. 
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© Conservation International, photo by Haroldo Castro
A young orang-utan (
Pongo pygmaeus, EN) in Tanjung Puting National Park in central Kalimantan, is threatened due to habitat loss. The Sumatran orang-utan (
Pongo abelii, CR), restricted to the island of Sumatra, is critically endangered.
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© Conservation International, photo by Jim Sanderson
Researches in Batang Gadis National Park, Sumatra, use camera traps to measure species abundance and distribution of cryptic or shy species.
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