The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) team have established this project to coordinate with land owners and the government to mitigate detrimental impacts on the Dangku landscape and leave corridors of untouched habitat across industrial land to ensure the survival of the Sumatran tiger (P.t. sumatrae).
The greater Dangku landscape spans about 350,000 Ha of which 17% is conservation area or protection forest and 79% is cleared or degraded forest for use by industrial concessions (mineral, oil-palm and acacia plantations).
Situated in the Dangku landscape (a forest reserve of 32,000 ha in the Musi Banyuas, District of South Sumatra) the industrial concessions surround a chain of conservation islands; the Dangku Reserve, 2 smaller reserves and the Harapan forest.
This habitat can still be safeguarded as satellite imagery shows connectivity between the islands still exists.
This project has a long term prospective to expand beyond the scope of the Dangku Landscape. The key objectives to achieve this are:
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To identify further members of patrolling team from the Dinas Kehutanan province, local communities and other stakeholders.
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Train the team, community volunteers and stakeholders in survey techniques, use of MIST and for BKSDA team management the use of MIST in strategic anti-poaching and patrolling activities.
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To design and develop an effective system for habitat and wildlife protection through patrolling using MIST to underpin this.
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Establish a monitoring protocol for the core conservation area of Dangku which will then be expanded to include non-conservation areas that are part of the landscape.
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Use of MIST anti-poaching system in the wider landscape scale to feed into provincial level wildlife and habitat protection planning in South Sumatra.
The successful ZSL Tackling Wildlife Crime in Berbak 2009-11 was used as a model and adapted to this project.
