Sumatra
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Science is not a safari Joining an expedition into the Sumatran rainforest as a conservation volunteer is no holiday – and that’s the point Story by Steve White
MALAYSIA Medan
SINGAPORE KALIMANTAN
Pekanbaru
INDONESIA
Padang SUMATRA
— January/February 2016
WE’D HAD A SHIT DAY. AT LEAST, THAT WAS THE STORY I AGREED with Manuela, ahead of that evening’s debrief back at base. It had been our longest day-hike into the reserve, along an ochre dirt road under unstinting tropical sun. Our tiredness was real enough, so to trudge back to the field station and announce we’d had a ‘shit day’ sounded perfectly plausible. We were both volunteers, accompanying two researchers from Indonesian WWF on a field survey looking for tigers in Rimbang Baling Wildlife Reserve in Riau Province, Sumatra. Along with four other volunteers, we had paid for the privilege of joining this project, run by WWF in conjunction with Biosphere, a voluntourism outfit. Started by German former paratrooper and self-confessed control freak, Matthias Hammer, Biosphere run wildlife conservation projects around the world, many of them aimed at research on big cats. This particular project was new, and Manuela and I were part of the pioneer group, filling the first of 2015’s six two-week slots. Besides Manuela there were three other Germans – journalists Andreas and Franz, and an architect also called Matthias – plus Michael, a geared-up Australian survivalist. Within 40 minutes of the city of Pekanbaru on the drive in, we already had a sense of the challenges the hard-pressed forests of Sumatra face. First we’d passed a van full of hunting dogs, uncommonly sleek and healthy in a country with little interest in pet canines. Then a trike with more dogs and a roadtrain of trucks piled with palm oil fruit. Other trucks ferried logs and coal. It was clear that Sumatra’s extractive industries were in good health but it didn’t augur well for the jungle or the tigers that supposedly inhabit it. From road’s end at the village of Tanjung Belit, a brief boat ride delivered us to our home for the next two weeks: a handsome two-storey field station. There we assembled for an introductory session. Asked about our expectations for the trip, several mentioned the hope of seeing a tiger, though the Expedition Dossier we had received beforehand had clearly stated the likelihood of seeing them was low. Hammer quickly jumped in: “Be very A QUESTION OF RANGE excited if you see some tiger shit,” he said. Prey species such as wild In that event, we were directed to take pig regularly come close samples. For while discovery fired our to villages in Rimbang hope, diligence would fill our days. We Baling but tigers more likely favour remoter areas. were to survey the kilometre-by-kilometre
PHOTOS: BIOSPHERE EXPEDITIONS; STEVE WHITE (RIGHT)
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January/February 2016 —