The conservation of tigers and other wildlife in oil palm plantations

production are well established, with various wood certification schemes, a relatively
aware consumer market and recent moves to incorporate wildlife conservation
standards within this. Extraction industries are also under increasing pressure with
several high profile campaigns conducted through the media and various progressive
solutions being trialled, such as biodiversity offset schemes (ten Kate, Bishop and
Bayon, 2004) and the creation of industry working groups specifically to address such
issues, such as the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative). The primary
producers like agricultural plantations are also under fire from continued campaigns
against agricultural industries such as soya bean and oil palm (e.g. (World Rainforest
Movement, 2001b; World Rainforest Movement, 2001a), (Wakke, 2005), (Buckland,
2006), and a recent report for investors and shareholders by F&C Asset Management
Ltd (2004) places food producers as one of the key areas for investment risks
associated with biodiversity losses.
The options for resolving conflict between industry and conservation are wideranging.
At one end of the scale, pressure can be placed on industries or governments
to stop their activities altogether, or to site or re-site themselves away from the most
sensitive areas for environmental damage. At the other end of the scale, established
industries can be pressured to minimise their impacts. Campaigns to stop commercial
activity in an area get headlines and, when successful, achieve important
environmental results for key areas of conservation importance. In contrast, working
on existing commercial landscapes to minimise impacts rarely provides clear cut
environmental successes, particularly for wildlife conservation, and consequently is a
poorly understood area receiving little attention. However, there is a need and a
demand for the products industrial landscapes produce, the jobs they provide and the
taxes they pay. Commercial landscapes are already extensive, covering huge areas,
and there is a limit to how often they can be blocked or re-sited before we have to
accept the challenge of incorporating them into conservation plans. Be they for
agriculture, horticulture or resource extraction, industrial landscapes are a key part of
any country’s economy and environmentalists must face this head on if their
environmental impact is to be tackled.
Conservation in industrial landscapes in Indonesia
Protected and unprotected areas in Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the most important centres
of biodiversity in the world, with 10% of the
world’s flowering plants, 12% of the mammals
and 17% of the birds. This diversity is not only
disproportionately high – much of it is not
found anywhere else. Of the approximately 500
mammal species, about one third are endemic.
As with most countries, Indonesia relies on a
system of protected areas to conserve its
biodiversity. Compared to world averages, this
accounts for a relatively large proportion of its
land (12% compared to the world average of
10%, with approximately 3% as core protected
areas). However, the existing protected areas
are not thought to be sufficient to protect
species (Jepson, Momberg and van Noord,
2002) with various evidence that even
established national parks are not sufficient to
fulfil their conservation functions e.g. (Gaveau,
Wandonoc and Setiabudi, 2007).
Wildlife conservation in oil palm plantations 11