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EAZA Tiger Campaign 2002/4


Target projects: Project 1

Tiger Protection and Conservation Units, Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra

This project has been running since its launch in 2000 as a partnership between Kerinci Seblat National Park and Fauna & Flora International. The park is one of the most important conservation areas in Southeast Asia and is a priority for long-term tiger conservation, but poaching of tigers and their prey species, as well as habitat destruction, are threatening their survival.                          TPCU team members © FFI

Tiger Protection and Conservation Units are rapid response teams made up of four rangers from the national park and forest-edge communities who can investigate suspected tiger poachers, dealers and communities with a history of poaching.











TPCU jeep © FFI
They have also built up data on the source and extent of threats to the Sumatran tiger, and carry out regular patrols and enforcement operations. However, the degenerating law and order situation in Sumatra has led to serious problems, including physical assaults and injury. One ranger (Andi) was even held hostage.
Illegal loggers use bribes and violence to ensure that they can carry on their business, with the result that rangers cannot patrol some areas.
The teams also discovered during their first year's work that actual or perceived human-tiger conflict is a factor in a large proportion of the illegal killings of tigers in and around the park.

Their successes so far include:

  • Court action against an army officer who assaulted two rangers after his timber truck was seized for illegal logging - a landmark case in Indonesia.
  • The detection of a ten man poaching syndicate plus their informant on the park management.
  • The ending of all poaching activity in areas where two armed deer poachers were arrested and sentenced, and where a tiger poacher was also arrested.
  • A sharp fall in the number of active tiger snares seized in 2001-2002 compared with the same period in 2000-2001.
  • The setting up of an interest-free loan fund for team members to buy motorbikes, increasing the rangers' ability to travel around park-edge villages on intelligence collection duties.
    • TPCU team member with
    confiscated tiger skin © FFI

Activities planned for 2002/2003 include:

  • A third Tiger Protection and Conservation Unit, to extend patrolling to more areas.
  • Setting up a field-based unit in the far south of the park.
  • A training workshop for rangers on resolving human-tiger conflict.
  • Training in intelligence operations techniques and in prosecution of cases against poachers and illegal loggers.
  • Seminars on wildlife law for police, military and judiciary.