Indonesia’s Sumatran tigers
Indonesia is one of the world’s largest archipelagos, situated between Asia and Australia. The country once held populations of tigers on the islands of Java and Bali but today tigers remain only on the island of Sumatra.
It is estimated by the IUCN Red List that there are fewer than 400 wild mature individual Sumatran tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae, (based on 2018 data) in isolated pockets of protected land and adjacent forests.
Three of the protected areas make up the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra UNESCO World Heritage Site however all three sites are in danger of losing this status due to threats from poaching, illegal logging, agricultural encroachment, and planned road building.
WildCats Conservation Alliance funds projects in one of these three protected areas:
The Kerinci Seblat National Park, the largest protected area in Sumatra, covering 13,791 km² across four provinces. Stretching along a mountain range that includes Mount Kerinci, the island’s highest active volcano, the park also encircles the densely populated Kerinci Valley, home to more than 300,000 residents.
In 2019-2020, the F&F Kerinci Seblat Tiger Monitoring conducted Tiger Occupancy surveys across >15,000 km² of forests in and around KSNP as part of the national Sumatra-wide Tiger Survey. Surveys in 78 randomly selected 17×17 km² cells, in and adjoining KSNP, reported tigers present in over 89% of the Grid cells surveyed, an increase on the 82% Occupancy rate recorded in 2007-2008. Subsequent data analysis concluded the tiger population in Kerinci Seblat NP and surrounding landscape in 2020 was 128 individuals, of which 119 tigers were mainly or wholly-resident in the NP. If this habitat is conserved, and other direct and indirect threats to tiger are contained/reduced, there is available habitat in the Kerinci Seblat Landscape – KSNP and adjoining or adjacent forests managed by other forestry agencies – for a potential population of 144-150 Sumatran tigers.
Protecting the Sumatran tiger in Bengkulu
