Read about the problems caused when the patrol came across this homemade gun in a poacher’s camp.
Lingkar Institute has reported on its activities carried out in Bengkulu, Sumatra during 2018. The team have a multi-pronged approach to reducing tiger poaching and illegal wildlife trade through practical collaboration between government, religious leaders and forest edge communities and building conservation awareness using Islamic perspective and values.
Lingkar is working with local religious leaders to make them more aware of the Fatwa MUI No. 4/2014 which prohibits Muslims in Indonesia from hunting or trading endangered wildlife such as Sumatran tiger. The religious leaders then take these messages back into their villages which have been selected as key hotspots for poachers. At the same time, Lingkar is managing a local patrol team made up of members of the forest service, rangers from the national park and the local community.
The report shows that the patrols covered a total walking distance of 176,659 km (by GPS Waypoint) in a generally very hilly area with 54 unit days spent on SMART patrols. During the year they started 25 investigations, information gathered shared with the local police and confiscated 10 active tiger snares and an additional 5 that were confiscated from a poachers camp.
The impact of this joined-up approach is that patrols can now respond to information provided by villagers who are quicker to report on outsiders entering their forests.
Read more about how the teams also developed curriculum material for the areas High Schools and how after discussion meetings with senior education officials of Lebong it was decided that Conservation should not be an ‘optional extra’ but part of the wider school curriculum. Tthis means that wildlife and environment conservation will be included in the teaching of various subjects – presently planned to be Biology, Geography, History, Religion.
You can download the full report here
