Motion-sensitive camera traps deployed within a large area of unprotected Indonesian forest have demonstrated that even areas that have previously been logged are important habitats for vulnerable and endangered species.

The cameras were set up by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) across a 2,000-square-kilometre area of land adjacent to the Bukit Tisa Puluh National Park in eastern Sumatra. They captured images of a wide variety of animals, including Asian tapirs, golden cats, clouded leopards and sun bears, as well as endangered Asian elephants and Sumatran tigers.

The society has called on the Indonesian government to fully investigate this and other such areas and to monitor their use by wildlife. It’s also pressing the government to consider giving areas of secondary forest such as this protection before releasing or, in this case, re-releasing them for commercial exploitation. ‘Just because forests have been logged doesn’t mean they have lost their value for biodiversity,’ said ZSL’s Dr Sarah Christie.


January 2008