The Sumatran Ranger Project (SRP) is a community conservation initiative, established to help provide long term protection of the Leuser ecosystem buffer zone environment to benefit both wildlife and people. The Leuser ecosystem is the last place on earth where Sumatran orangutans, rhinoceros, elephants, and tigers still co-exist and is the last stronghold for all of these critically endangered species.
Community conservation along the forest border in the Leuser Ecosystem
Sumatran Ranger Project
Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund supports the base salary of eight SRP rangers, including insurance and a meal allowance. The rangers patrol the buffer zone (forest edge) of the Leuser ecosystem in North Sumatra province; deactivating traps and snares, providing community outreach and education, mitigating wildlife conflict, collecting data, and identifying and implementing alternative livelihood schemes.
The rangers patrol in and around at least five buffer zone communities on a regular basis, engaging with the communities and collecting data on the harmful and illegal activities they engage in and why. They maintain positive relationships with the communities to ensure human-wildlife conflict situations can be managed in a non-lethal manner.
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