This article was originally published on Global Forest Watch.
“It’s another steamy day in Sumatra, one of Indonesia’s largest islands known for its tropical, richly forested landscapes. Throughout the 792,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of Gunung Leuser National Park roam lone patrollers looking for poaching and other illegal activities that threaten the forest and its endangered wildlife. They’re guided only by a single GPS coordinate, a best estimate of where there’s been damage, and together, they only cover fractions of the park at a time. It’s insufficient, but it’s the best they can do with their limited technology and manpower.
The world needs better solutions to conserve national parks and other areas that are legally protected for their unique environmental and cultural values. After all, what happens in the remote corners of the world’s wilderness has far reaching implications for biodiversity, climate change, freshwater regulation, and other critical ecosystem services on which humanity depends.
Recently, Global Forest Watch (GFW) partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute and RESOLVE to make cutting-edge maps and data about forests available to those who need them most to more easily find and stop deforestation. Described below is our work with HAkA (Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh) and FKL (Leuser Conservation Forum), two groups that focus on protecting and restoring the globally important Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia…”
Read on at: Global Forest Watch.
