Chainsaws imperil the lovely Soraya
BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): To meet the beautiful Soraya, we had to travel 1,000 kilometers, going along the northern coasts down to Medan where a four-wheeler took us to Brastagi, Bukit Barisan and Simpangkiri in southern Aceh.
We continued by speedboat up the Alas River, before walking upstream and trekking up and down hills and valleys.
Finally, we arrived for our date with Soraya.
Actually "shorea" but mispronounced by an American researcher to sound like the women's name, it is a 500-hectare forest area which has become one of Leuser Development Project's centers for research, monitoring and documentation activities.
Shorea is locally known as meranti, a highly valuable wood for furniture.
The project has another two centers in Ketambe, southeast Aceh, and Suaq Balimbing, south Aceh.
Nature lovers will revel in the forest journey to Soraya, which is largely virgin jungle. Waterfalls, birds, primates, tigers, deer, butterflies, elephants -- all exist without human disturbance.
Living in the station are a dozen personnel from both Indonesia and abroad who consist of field managers, assistants, researchers, mechanics and cooks. They work at the station for 23 days a month, "descending" to town in Aceh or North Sumatra during their week off.
Syawaluddin, one of the local staff members at the station, said more than 100 people had visited the center to conduct research or tour the forest since it was set up three years ago.
The unique aspect of research assistants is that they have no formal educational background but still play a key role in the success of a project. Learning by doing, they have high expertise and researchers rely on them for field data collection.
They are specialized. Marlan, 33, is a specialist in the Thomas leaf monkey (presbytis thomasi), Bahlias Putra Gayo, 36, in the orangutan, Idrusman, 45, in vegetation, and Jalalludin, 35, in tracing animals' trails.
It is thanks to their expertise that many researchers obtain their academic degrees in their respective universities. Many have suggested the assistants also deserve such degrees.
Research assistants will patiently explain in great detail what they know about anything in the jungle, from tiger paw prints and monkeys' behavior, to bird species.
They are friends with the wild animals. They dread most the noise of chainsaws breaking the quietness day in and day out in their research areas.
"It sounds like a death knell for the jungle and its inhabitants -- or that death is approaching," an assistant said.
The continuing logging, both legally and otherwise, has cast doubt on whether the multimillion dollar conservation project will bring any significant results. (Wiratmadinata)