Sundaland 

Sundaland is one of the biologically richest hotspots on Earth. It holds about 25,000 species of vascular plants, 60 percent of which are found nowhere else.

However, the spectacular flora and fauna of this hotspot are succumbing to the explosive growth of industrial forestry in these islands. Unsustainable rubber, oil palm and pulp production have been three of the most detrimental forces. Today, only 7 percent remains of the hotspot’s original 1.5 million square kilometers of natural vegetation.

The Indonesian island of Sumatra is the biologically richest and most threatened area within this hotspot. The island harbors more than 10,000 plant species, mostly in lowland forests. Sixteen of the 210 mammal species found here are unique to the island, including Critically Endangered Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and Sumatran tiger (Panthera sumatrae).

We targeted the following four areas based on an ecosystem profile developed with stakeholders:

• Tesso Nilo/Bukit Tigapuluh (central Sumatra)
• Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (Sumatra’s southern tip)
• Northern Sumatra (Sumatra’s two northern-most provinces)
• Siberut Island (in the Mentawai chain off west Sumatra)

Funding at the local level was especially important because Indonesia only recently decentralized management of natural resources to allow greater local control. However, the power shift did little to build local capacity or coffers so that local people could effectively participate and benefit from biodiversity conservation. A tradition of working in isolation had also kept Sumatra’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) fragmented.

Our approach was therefore to finance projects at the district level and below, with the aim of enhancing local stewardship of forests and building alliances among conservation-minded individuals, NGOs and private sector interests.

Four strategic directions guided our approach in Sumatra:

1. Enhance stewardship of forest resources at district level and below.
2. Empower civil society to organize in favor of conserving biodiversity.
3. Build alliances among conservation-minded groups in civil society and the private sector.
4. Assess impact of conservation interventions at district level and below.

In 2007, we completed an assessment of our $10 million investment. Major results include expanding and strengthening the protected area network; catalyzing policy action to strengthen natural resource management at the local and national levels; and bolstering civil society capacity both as individual organizations and as networks of organizations.

Forest Cover and Change data on CI's Learning Network: sumatra, indonesia c.1990-c.2000 (WinZip File - 35 MB)