Javan gibbons face extinction, illegal loggers blamed

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post/Sukabumi

Five groups of the endangered Javan silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), or Owa Jawa, have disappeared from the 100-hectare (ha) Kabandungan Forest, a lush corridor that connects Mount Salak and Mount Halimun in Sukabumi, West Java, a park official said.

"Illegal loggers have nearly cut down the entire corridor ... the small area of remaining forest is now isolated from the Kabandungan ecosystem," Mount Halimun National Park official Nur Faizin told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

In 1998, Faizin said, five families of four to five Javan silvery gibbons lived in the forest corridor.

"Maybe they died from the extreme change in their habitat, were killed by hunters, or migrated to another location," he said.

Another Halimun park official, Ika Kristiana, feared the extinction of many flora and fauna, especially those as yet undiscovered in the forest, due to the disappearance of the forest corridor.

"The Kabandungan corridor is vital to the preservation of the montane ecosystems of Salak and Halimun, which are home to different animals and vegetation.

"We believe the forest corridor linked the two ecosystems and enabled their endemic species to interact and expand their gene pools for better survival. Without this, species endemic to the mountains would disappear one by one," Ika told the Post.

The Ministry of Forestry placed Salak and Halimun under a single management last year, expanding the national park from 40,000 ha to 113,357 ha across Sukabumi and Bogor regencies of West Java and Lebak regency of Banten. The Kabandungan forest corridor is located in Lebak.

Over the next five years, Faizin said, the national park, together with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), would begin rehabilitating the diminishing forest corridor.

The park management and JICA are currently surveying the economic base of villagers living around the forest, establishing the park's border and involving locals in conservation programs.

In addition, they are encouraging villagers to switch to farming to reduce locals' dependence on forests as their main source of income.

"We are also receiving assistance from other (environmental groups) to rehabilitate the forest," Ika said.

These include the Indonesian Biodiversity Conservation (BCI), which focuses on conserving panthers, the Mata Elang -- or Eagles' Eye -- that works to protect and conserve raptors, particularly the highly endangered Javan eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi), and Bogor Institute of Agriculture students, who monitor and study the Javan silvery gibbon.

The three protected species are endemic to the montane ecosystems of Salak and Halimun.

Faizin said the BCI and national park officials were monitoring panthers and their movement each month.

"We have found 40 panthers in the national park, each of which has a territory of 1,000 hectares," he said.

The twin ecosystem is also home to 16 different species of eagles, including the 18 Javan eagles spotted there, and eight remaining Javan silvery gibbon families that forage across 40,000 ha of the park.