The recent report from Kerinci Seblat National Park, shows that successful wildlife crime investigations over the past three years have reduced threats to tigers in the core area of the park. 15 poachers have been arrested and prosecuted here since the beginning of 2017. The battle against poachers is being won through hard work, determination and detection work.
Nevertheless, camera trap evidence suggests the tiger population has yet to jump back to the same density levels in the core area after the impact of the higher poaching incidents in the four years prior to 2016.
The reduced threat to tiger that was recorded on patrols, allowed TPCUs to step up responses to other forest and wildlife crime. Twelve chainsaws and two firearms were confiscated and a total of 69 formal or verbal warnings issued for a range of offences. The purchase of a new Mitsubishi long-wheelbase jeep patrol vehicle was finally secured in late 2018 and is a welcome addition.
2018 saw the heaviest monsoon rainfall in six years which caused problems for the teams when collecting evidence of tigers movements. Pug marks which would normally provide evidence of tigers, were washed away. As a result frequency of encounter (FoE) with tiger reduced, slightly, to one tiger per 13.8 patrol miles walked (22.2 km) compared with 1- 12.92 miles (21 km) in the same months of 2017-2018.
This is a project of the Kerinci Seblat National Park with coordination from Fauna & Flora International (FFI). Read more about this project
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