HOME Original Letter*: 7 May 1999 Update: 6 July 1999 Update: 14 November 1999 How you can help Press Release from Dr. Carel van Schaik, June 1999 Report on Illegal Logging in Indonesia by EIA Suggested reading regarding orangutans at Suaq Balimbing Information on Indonesian Wildlife and National Parks European Union Forest Liaison Bureau

Update on Suaq Balimbing 14 November 1999   The Suaq Balimbing research site was temporarily closed, due to the political turmoil in that area of Aceh province, in September. Staff and researchers reported that the situation prior to this was much the same as described in the 6 July update: little or no logging activity within the central research area, and decreasing but continued chainsaw activity in the immediate surroundings within the national park boundaries. As of early November, researchers were not expecting to return to the site until January 2000. Hopefully the new president and cabinet of Indonesia will help to stabilize the situation there and allow the research staff to return sooner. There are sources of hope that the situation in Gunung Leuser could improve soon. Both the official government (through legislation and the stated support of the Vice-Governor and the director general of forestry) and the separatist rebels in Aceh have publicly stated that they are opposed to illegal logging in the Gunung Leuser ecosystem. The Leuser Management Unit and several NGO’s are currently involved in discussions with local people about possible actions to develop local patrol systems to prevent illegal loggers from working in the forest areas adjacent to their villages. Now that the new government is in place, it is important that more letters are written to remind them that the international community is concerned with the habitat destruction in Gunung Leuser, especially in the lowland forests of the new Leuser Ecosystem, and elsewhere across the archipelago. Letters to the new Minister of Forestry would be particularly helpful. It is also important to alert international organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank that the global community is concerned about the protection of Indonesia’s unique rainforests and wildlife, and ask them to make international aid to Indonesia contingent upon improved enforcement of existing conservation laws and regulations.

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