Sumatra: Save the tigers of Kerinci Seblat National Park
Deforestation and illegal poaching are threatening to wipe out the few
remaining Sumatran tigers in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, an
activist said on Monday. Yoan Dinata, from Flora and Fauna
International, a non-governmental organization that is monitoring
Sumatran tigers in the national park, said that loss of habitat and
the animal’s natural prey was a major threat to the species’ future.
Dinata said that an estimated that 85.6 square kilometers of forest
was lost annually from 2002 to 2004 in the national park, severely
reducing the animal’s natural environment.
Dinata said that
deforestation had also forced the tigers to encroach on land owned by
villagers and that poachers themselves had been attacked.
“[Deforestation] is also giving rise to more conflict between the
tigers and humans because some parts of the national park are located
near villages,” he said. Diana added that the 1.4-million-hectare park
was capable of supporting a far larger population than the estimated
136 remaining and that the animal’s future was therefore uncertain.
“The Sumatran tiger is facing extinction because the numbers are not
proportional to the large area of the park,” Dinata said. The national
park straddles four major provinces — West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu
and South Sumatra — and borders nine districts, 43 subdistricts and
134 villages. It is a home not only to the Sumatran tiger but also the
rare Sumatran rhino, the Sumatran elephant and Rafflesia arnoldii,
which can attain a diameter of one meter and can weigh 11 kilograms,
making it the world’s largest flower. FFI has been monitoring the
species since 2004 by looking for droppings and tracks and by using
camera traps, Dinata said. “Every year around three to five tigers
have been killed for the illegal market from the park,” he said. The
Sumatran tiger was classified as endangered in 1996 by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are estimated to
be between 400 to 500 of such tigers left on Sumatra island.
http://bigcatnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/logging-poaching-threatens-sumatra.html
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