Prominent Acehnese to save Leuser park
JAKARTA (JP): Prominent Aceh figures have lent credence to the campaign to save the Leuser National Park, a landmark in the province whose biodiversity resources are now threatened due to ignorance and neglect.
Together they founded the Leuser International Foundation on July 23, with the goal of campaigning for the promotion and protection of the natural diversity of the forest.
Abdul Rachman Ramly, the chief executive officer of Astra International group, chairs the foundation whose founders also include State Minister of Food and the chairman of the National Logistic Board Ibrahim Hasan and former cooperatives minister Bustanil Arifin.
The foundation went public for the first time yesterday with a press conference to announce its line up and objectives.
The park is the habitat of various species including the rare enggang birds, orangutan, elephants, wild goats and six species of durian. Leuser is considered highly unusual because it combines beaches, swamps, rain forests and high mountains all in one area.
The only other park boasting a similar line-up is the Laurentz national park in Irian Jaya. Leuser offers visitors beautiful scenery and adventures through mountain climbing, trekking and rafting.
Ramly said the damages to the park's forests and ecosystem have been largely caused by the local people's poor knowledge of the importance of the ecosystem, the activities of forest concession holders, and lack of supervision.
Ramly has served Indonesia in various key positions, such as ambassador to the United States and president of the state oil firm Pertamina.
"We need to protect the park because of its huge natural wealth which has yet to be explored," Ramly told reporters at the office of Asuransi Berdikari, an insurance company of the Berdikari Group owned by Bustanil.
Ramly said the foundation plans to invite foreign institutions to take part in its programs, and is now lobbying countries in the European Union. "The environment is now a global issue."
He said many local people wrongly believed that they could make use of the resources any way they liked inside the national park. He added that the attacks which are directed solely against forest concessions are misdirected, as they are not the only source of environmental abuse.
"This is wrong. It is in the non-concession areas that we find more natural wealth than that of the concession forests," he said.
The Leuser foundation will also launch a program that will encourage the people living near the 850,000-hectare park to participate in protecting the area's natural diversity.
The foundation will set up posts in around the park to supervise the program. "We will teach the local people why and how to protect the environment."
He said the area could be developed into an ecotourism site, providing the local people with new jobs as guides, cooks and lodge keepers. (par)