Aceh Hak News Today

A nationally protected wildlife reserve in Indonesia is under attack by popular, big-name brands.

JAKARTA — Despite various commitments from global brands and the government to protect Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, home to some of the rarest species on Earth, development of new palm oil plantations and drainage of carbon-rich peatlands continue in the ecosystem, a new investigation finds. At the same time, deforestation in Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve, a […]

The New Big 5 is a project by Graeme Green, highlighting extraordinary wildlife photography advocating for conservation around the world.

JAKARTA — Deforestation associated with oil palm cultivation has declined in recent years in Indonesia, but in a biodiversity haven at the northern tip of Sumatra, the forest is being cleared at record pace, a report shows. Using Sentinel-2 and Planet/NICFI satellite imagery, forest loss monitoring platform TheTreeMap found that the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve […]

COT GIREK, Indonesia — Saleh Kadri, a young farmer from Leubok Pusaka village in North Aceh district, was on his way to his plantation when he spotted eight elephants on the riverbank. From his canoe, he recorded a video with his phone. The animals looked stunned. One seemed to be staring at Saleh’s moving canoe, […]

JAKARTA — Deforestation inside Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, home to some of the rarest species on Earth, declined in 2021 to its lowest level in seven years, following a surge in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Leuser is known for being the last place on Earth where critically endangered Sumatran rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans […]

Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven A road in Sumatra that cuts through the only habitat on Earth that houses rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans has recently been upgraded, stoking fears of greater human incursion into the rainforest. Already the upgrades have seen a proliferation of human settlements along a section of the road in a forest adjacent to Gunung Leuser National Park, resulting in the loss of 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of forest. En...