tanjung puting national park

Tanjung Puting National Park is a 400,000 hectare conservation area of global importance. Within its borders are a variety of ecosystems, including tropical heath forest, peat swamp forest, and mangrove forest, and it is also the habitat of over 200 bird species, 17 reptile species and 29 mammal species. Nine of Borneo's primate species are found in the park, including about 2000 orangutans and Tanjung Puting is one of the few remaining habitats for this endangered animal. In the mid 1930s, the Dutch colonial government established two conservation areas within the park which were legally given the status of Wildlife Reserve. In 1982 the area was declared as a National Park. It is also recognised as a world Biosphere Reserve by the UN and forms the largest protected area of swamp forest in South-East Asia.


The existence of Tanjung Puting is important for the well-being of the surrounding local human population. The wetlands provide vital ecological services such as flood control, stream control regulation, erosion control, natural biological filtration system, and seasonal nurseries for fish which are the major source of local animal protein. Many of these services have an impact well beyond the local area. For instance, the waters surrounding Tanjung Puting attract fishing vessels from many different parts of Indonesia.
Despite being locally and internationally recognised as an important area for conservation, Tanjung Puting National Park is still under threat of environmental destruction. The three primary causes of forest destruction in the park are illegal logging, illegal mining and forest clearing for conversion to community plantations. The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry estimates that about 40 percent of the park has already been damaged by illegal logging and forest fires. The illegal logging is often carried out with the tacit or active support of local military, police, and forestry officials.

In April 2001 the then Minister of Forests, Marzuki Usman, took the first action necessary to curb the logging within Tanjung Puting, issuing a Ministerial decree to place a temporary moratorium on the cutting and trading of ramin. However, Dr Biruté Galdikas who works to protect Tanjung Puting, the habitat of the endangered orangutan, says the situation is worse now than 5 years ago under the former regime. The process of decentralisation and the implementation of regional autonomy have effectively allowed local communities to take power into their own hands (see her article, Revenge of the Little People).
Sources:
Environmental Investigation Agency|State of the Forest Indonesia|World Resources Institute
|Tanjung Puting National Park|Orangutan Foundation International|The Tanjung Puting National Park and Biosphere Reserve