Lynn Clayton
Conservation of the Paguyaman Forest, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
| Location | Country | Categories | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | Asia, Education, Forests, Mammals | 26 Jun 1998 |
Dr Lynn Clayton is working to support the establishment and development of a 32,500 hectare protected area, the Paguyaman Forest, in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. This wild and remote rainforest is of international importance for the babirusa, an extraordinary, curly tusked pig which is endemic to Sulawesi. The babirusa is seriously endangered. Its wild population numbers approximately 5,000 individuals and this is dwindling rapidly due to illegal poaching and loss of habitat. The Paguyaman Forest, accessible by longboat, is one of the last remaining strongholds of the babirusa. Without active conservation and protection of the site, the very survival of this species is questionable. A key feature of the site is the large natural salt-lick where it is possible to observe the elusive babirusa as they congregate to consume the mineral rich soil and engage in aggressive jousting matches. Excellent populations of Sulawesi’s endemic mammals such as the anoa and various macaques occur here.
In August 1997 the reserve was officially gazetted. However slash and burn clearance, logging and illegal timber removal still threatens the area and international support and attention are needed to conserve it. This project will
- carry out public education programmes in local villages and towns to communicate the importance of the site;
- help to establish reserve infrastructure such as training rangers; and
- help to develop the ecotourism potential of the area and ensure that the community is deeply involved in the process.
Lynn Clayton was a runner up for the 1998 Whitley Award. Find out more about Lynn's project from her website and from this BBC News Online article.
News & Updates
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Tuesday, 6th May 2003 |
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There has been quite a bit of international publicity with Martyn Colbeck from the BBC visiting twice to film babirusa for the "Life of Mammals" David Attenborough series. That was great and meant the babirusa featured in programme six, shown in January, called "The Opportunists". Martyn also wrote a children's story called "The Special Place in the Forest" about the salt-lick where the babirusa congregate and we have printed 5,000 of this book in the Indonesian language with very nice illustrations by an Indonesian artist. We have been involved in quite a lot of efforts to encourage locals to get on side, including growing and planting of 8,000 teak trees, now planted in the buffer-zone around the reserve, while at the same time keeping up the essential active protection and patrolling of the reserve, with help from military personnel. The trade in babirusa meat has declined substantially now: we finally got a babirusa trader convicted in court, the first ever completed prosecution of this kind in Sulawesi. We have also set up a local NGO called YANI (Yayasan Adudu-Nantu International) based in Gorontalo, the town nearest the babirusa reserve, comprising a group of committed Gorontalonese and other Indonesian colleagues. |
I am still out here in Sulawesi and all is well here with lots of exciting progress with the babirusa work. The reserve is now being proposed as a national park (52,000 ha) by the local government of the area and there has been a great turnaround in terms of local support for the protection of the area - we now have full support from the Regent of the district - since his visit to the site and the majority of locals.