A team from Resort of Dolok Sipirok Nature Reserve in
collaboration with the SCORPION Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group conducted a
joint patrol on the border area of Dolok Sipirok Nature Reserve in South
Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra, on Thursday (07-18/2019). In this patrol, the
team found illegal logging in the Tapanuli Orangutan habitat in the Sampean
Village, Sipirok subdistrict, South Tapanuli.
Some timbers were stolen from this conservation area (Nature
Reserve) and were collected on the edge of the Nature Reserve, but the patrol
team did not find out who did it. Under direction from the Resort Head of Dolok
Sipirok Nature Reserve, Muda Hutabarat, the team destroyed the logs to deter
the perpetrators from repeating these actions in future.
"The occurrence of illegal logging in this conservation
area is very bad. We did not find the culprit. Therefore, we destroyed the
timbers using a chainsaw, " said Muda Hutabarat.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the SCORPION Wildlife
Trade Monitoring Group, Gunung Gea, appealed to the authorities to investigate
this case so that the destruction of the Tapanuli Orangutan habitat would not
be repeated in the future.
"The Tapanuli Orangutan is the most critically
endangered great ape in the world because the population is currently less than
800. The authorities are expected to be able to thoroughly investigate this
case to prevent damage to the habitat of Tapanuli Orangutan," Gunung Gea
said.
For the last year, the Dolok Sipirok Resort and SCORPION have
been active in conducting joint patrols around the CA Dolok Sipirok border to
prevent hunting, capture, and illegal trade in Tapanuli Orangutan. Dolok
Sipirok is an important part of the Batangtoru Ecosystem area, which is also
called Harangan Tapanuli.
The Scorpion Foundation actively works to protect the
Tapanuli Orangutan by preventing capturing, keeping, and trading of this very
rare great ape. The Scorpion work in Tapanuli is supported by The Orangutan
Project (TOP) Australia.
