Community-Based Ecosystem Restoration in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP)
Restoring degraded forest ecosystems, protecting endemic wildlife, and strengthening community capacity through native tree planting and collaborative ecosystem management.
Community-Based Ecosystem Restoration in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP)
Introduction
Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP) with a total area of 356,800 ha is the third largest conservation area in Sumatra. Since 2004, BBSNP along with Gunung Leuser and Kerinci Seblat National Park were designated by UNESCO as the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra (TRHS) covers a total area of 2,595,124 ha, constituting one of the biggest conservation areas in Southeast Asia (WHP, 2014). BBSNP was inscribed in the World Heritage list for its unique natural beauty, the importance of its habitats for the conservation of endemic species including Sumatran orang-utan, tiger, rhino, elephant, and Malayan sun-bear. BBSNP also has the significant role of its on-going ecological and biological processes in its ecosystems to the global landscape.
Unfortunately, BBSNP are by no means free from disturbances. Population increase, agriculture expansion, and exploitations of other biological and physical resources of the forests, have put lots of pressure to BBSNP. Deforestation and encroachment in BBSNP areas due to the expansion of monocultures and infrastructure development have been the main threats to BBSNP integrity. About 74,988 ha or 21% of BBSNP area has been encroached until year 2014 (TBI, 2015). Encroachment is often compounded with other problems such as illegal logging and poaching. In the meantime, problems have become entrenched due to the economic and political interests associated with the use of resources within park boundaries. These continuous threats led to the inscription of TRHS to the In-Danger List of World Heritage by the World Heritage Committee in 2011.
As one of the efforts to solve encroachment in BBSNP, joint coercive operation involving police and army which coordinated by BBSNP was conducted to evict squatters out of BBSNP area and eradicate the exotic plants species. Furthermore, to bring back original normalcy of function, structure, potential, service and process the recovery of ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed, it is needed ecosystem restoration (FES, 2008). Successful of BBSNP ecosystem restoration will contribute on increasing of carbon stock and reducing of GHG emissions.
Operasi Wallacea Terpadu Foundation (OWT) is Bogor based national NGO, was selected by UNESCO, cooperated with BBSNP has facilitated project of community-based ecosystem restoration at Pedamaran area of BBSNP. The purposes of this project is to enhance capacity and raise awareness of local community as well as BBSNP staff, as the key actor on ecosystem restoration at Pedamaran area.
Achivement
The projects was implemented through four phases: (1) Diagnostic study, the aim of this stage is to identify the site condition of planned restoration area. The activities of this stages are: data collection of biophysical and social economy, survey on awareness status, establishment of vegetation plot, mapping, and developing Ecosystem Restoration Technical Design; (2) Capacity building, the aim of this stages is to enhance capacity of local community and BBSNP staff on ecosystem restoration. The activities of this stage are: developing and disseminate of training and awareness materials, establishment of restoration farmer group, training delivery on ecosystem restoration for local community and BBSNP staff, and awareness campaign; (3) Collaborative management, the aim of this stage is to build collaborative management on implementation of ecosystem restoration in BBSNP. The activities of this stage are: nursery establishment, genetic materials collection, seedlings production, plantation, establishment of Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) permanent plot to monitor status, change, and trend of restoration area, plant maintenance, and community-based security and protection of restoration area; and (4) Exit strategy, the aim of this stage is to end project facilitation and to ensure that the entire initiation and facilitation of project undertaken, could be replicated by both stakeholders and local community. The activities of this stage are: Promotion of BBSNP Ecosystem Restoration Best Practices, Making film on BBSNP Ecosystem Restoration Best Practices, developing database on ecosystem restoration.
Restoration in Pedamaran was implemented for 14 months, starting from March 2014 until May 2015 and has been successful to restore 112 ha area with plants survival ± 95% and has planted 62,500 seedlings of 36 endemic tree species of BBSNP, while some of species are as Sumatran rhino ((Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) feed such as Alstonia scholaris, Vitex pubescens, and Pterospermum javanicum. The success of ecosystem restoration at Pedamaran was caused by several factors: (i) Good capacity of local community on ecosystem restoration, (ii) Availability of genetic materials, (iii) Good quality of seedlings, (iv) Good technique of planting, (iv) Planting carried out on the begining of rainy season, (v) Engaging BBSNP and local community, (vi) Intensive facilitation both by facilitators and BBSNP, (vii) Ensure that implementation all of activities steps of ecosystem restoration refered to the method which has been stated at Standard Operational Procedure of Forest Rehabilitation.
The major milestones of the project during implementation of the project are as follow: (1) Providing base-line data from feasibility studies on the bio-physical and socio-economic aspects in the selected siteas the basis to develop a scientific-based ecological restoration methodology, (2) Develop awareness materials, (3) Established of Ecosystem Restoration Farmer Group at Pedamaran Hamlet, (4) Delivering awareness materials and film screening in two sub-villages surrounding restoration area, (5) Conducted training for local community and BBSNP staff on ecosystem restoration, (6) Established one village nursery at Pedamaran area with capacity of 100,000 seedlings, (7) Produced ± 80,000 good qualified seedlings for restoration and ± 10,000 seedlings for community income generating activity, (8) Produced serials map of restoration area (plantation maps, topography, land cover, etc.), (9) Conducted plantation of 112 ha, (10) Established permanent plot of Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) at restored area to monitor status, change, and trend of plants growth and ecosystem of restoration area, (11) Conducted plant maintenance, (12) Produced film on “Best Practice of Ecosystem Restoration at BBSNP” in English and Indonesian versione in BBS NP, (13) Develop Database Management on Ecosystem Restoration at Pedamaran area.
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Operation Wallacea Terpadu is a non-profit organization focused on practical climate action – from reforestation and coastal clean-ups to sustainability education for youth and communities.
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