One of the biggest challenges in the current era of rapid industrialization, especially in developing countries such as Indonesia, is addressing the many serious environmental issues that arise. However, in the national debate over economic development and environmental issues, the latter tend to be inadequately addresses or ignored altogether.

YEL was established to focus on environmental issues, responding to existing challenges, especially with regards to the preservation of conservation areas and the conservation of endangered species, especially the Sumatran Orangutan and its habitat, as well as on raising issues related to the destruction and/or degradation of strategic buffer zones, especially in the northern parts of Sumatra.

YEL’s involvement in nature conservation first began with the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), in which YEL and its principle partner, the Swiss-based PanEcoFoundation, established an orangutan quarantine centre at Batu Mbelin, near the town of Sibolangit in North Sumatra. From these beginnings, YEL has gradually expanded its programmes into education and awareness, research surveys and monitoring of the remaining wild Sumatran orang-utan Populations, and the conservation of the Batang Toru Forests in North Sumatra Province, and the remaining peat swamp forests on the west coast of Aceh.

Batang Toru Forest Conservation Programme
The Batang Toru Forests are a unique ecosystem. They support high biodiversity, including the southernmost known wild orangutan population, and cover 10 significant watersheds and sub-catchments in the region known as Tapanuli, in North Sumatra.

Administratively, these forests lie in three local government Districts, Tapanuli Utara, Tapanuli Tengah and Tapanuli Selatan.  With its steep topography (> 40% slopes in many places), the Forests of Batang Toru play an important role in the providing a stable supply of clean freshwater, and the prevention of floods, erosion and landslides in the surrounding areas.

Unfortunately, despite the steepness of the terrain, the forests are not free from the threat of logging, which would reduce dramatically the levels of ecosystem services provided by the forests. Only 18.6% of the total Batang Toru forest area is currently protected by law, the remainder being designated as production forest or as Area for Other Uses, both of which mean that the threat of large scale logging and conversion of the Batang Toru forests is ever present.

In collaboration with the three District Governments that contain the Batang Toru Forests and other key stakeholders, YEL is actively promoting a forest status change that provides better protection. As a result the local and provincial governments have already requested the Ministry of Forest to declare the forests as Hutan Lindung or “Protection Forests”, a status that provides while allowing the participation of local stakeholders in management. Furthermore, the draft new District and Provincial Spatial Plans all designate the forests for protection.

As part of YEL’s efforts to develop effective community assistance and awareness programmes, a major series of socio-economic surveys have been carried out, which have identified threats, but also clearly demonstrated that the indigenous Batak communities have a strong understanding of the environmental services provided by the forests, and a desire for more effective management.
Meanwhile work at a forest monitoring camp established with the blessing of the Tapanuli Utara District Government, continues to discover more about the uniqueness of the Batang Toru orangutan population, and  other biological riches of these forests.

Swamp Conservation Programme
YEL’s involvement in the post tsunami rehabilitation programme in Aceh Province included a focus on the District of Nagan Raya, on Aceh’s west coast, the location of most of the Tripa swamp forest. Tripa, and the other 2 remaining coastal peat swamp forests in Aceh, namely the Kluet swamps and the Singkil swamps, support the highest densities of orangutans anywhere in the world. They also represent a critically important habitat for a host of other rare and endangered species too, many of them swamp specialist species.

The Tripa swamp itself lies in two administrative Districts, Nagan Raya and Aceh Barat Daya and is suffering sevee destruction as the remaining forests are being cleared for palm oil plantations, by just a few large companies.

The loss of the forests is one thing, and all the wildlife and plant species they contain, but another equally serious problem is the destruction of the peat itself. When peat is cleared and drained it oxidises in the air, releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide and contributing to global climate change. The peat also subsides as it degrades, dropping by on average about 1 metre every 20 years. This in a coastal location that is already close to sea level. If allowed to continue, this destruction could lead to the whole area being inundated by the sea in just a few decades, which makes no sense for the local communities who depend on the area, or the large companies either, since they will also lose their plantations.

YEL’s Conservation, Education and Humanitarian Divisions are all involved in the effort to save Tripa and the other peat swamps:

• Pilot Study of Sustainable Palm Oil, a  approx. 95ha community based smallholder oil palm plantation on degraded (non-forested) mineral soils, based on the Principles and Criteria of the RSPO (Rountable for Sustainable Palm Oil)and also applying organic farming methods, as a demonstration that palm oil does not have to be produced by large companies destroying pristine forests and critically important peatlands in the process.
• Awareness campaigns and community assistance and development projects in the areas surrounding the Tripa Peat Swamp;
• An Environmental Health programme to improve both human and environmental health among communities in Tripa, implemented by YEL’s Mobile Health Unit.

The second priority within YEL’s overall Swamp Conservation Programme is the Singkil Swamp, a supposedly protected conservation area (wildlife reserve) that is threatened mostly by illegal logging and encroachment in some areas (including by at least one partially state owned oil palm plantation), and by a major road project that threatens the integrity of the west coast. YEL’s projects in Aceh Singkil focus on community development among those living adjacent to the swamps, in terms of raising people’s understanding of the important role the swamps play in their own survival and livelihoods and hence of the importance of sustainable management of the area for the host of valuable ecosystem services it provides.

YEL’s Conservation Division is supporting the programme in Aceh Singkil through biodiversity research and assessments while the Education Division assists with awareness campaigns and community development programmes, largely via its Mobile Education Unit.