Camera trapping

Thanks to support from Thin Green Line Foundation we have established a camera trapping program, beginning in one of our forest edge communities, Batu Rongring, in North Sumatra. Batu Rongring lies on the edge of the Gunung Leuser National Park and has a multitude of wildlife using the buffer zone, the national park and the surrounding oil palm plantations. There are high levels of human-wildlife conflict in the area, largely due to oil palm encroachment into the forest and the community settlement being hard up against the forest. We have employed a local team to monitor camera traps and collect data on the wildlife using the area. In only 3 months we have seen Malayan sun bears, two species of porcupine, chevrotain, long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques, various bird species and a multitude of small mammals. We know there are Sumatran tigers in the area due to pugmarks and sightings and our aim is to capture an image. Knowledge is key to the long term protection of this area and reduction of encroachment into the forest. Over time we will build up a data bank of the species using the area, some of them critically endangered and this will help afford protection of habitat over the long term. Not only are we carrying out research, we are providing alternative livelihoods to reduce the reliance on harmful activity such as poaching. Below are a collection of images from the first two months of data collection.