Sumatra Rainforest Eco Retreat
Covering over 2.6 million hectares, the Sumatran rainforest is an important source for the Earth’s oxygen. It is one of the richest areas of tropical biodiversity in Southeast Asia, as well as being the last place on earth to find the Sumatran tiger, rhino, elephant and Orangutan in one place.
Batu Kapal is found in North Sumatra, on the doorstep to the extraordinary Gunung Leuser National Park, and is a very rich biodiversity hotspot with many wild orangutans and other rare and endangered wildlife species. Farming, land clearance for palm oil, and urbanisation, place continual pressure on the survival of this wildlife refuge.
It is our mission to reforest the degraded land in and around Batu Kapal, including on oil and rubber plantations, as well as farm land and private landholdings. Reforesting and protecting the Batu Kapal buffer zone will create a vital wildlife corridor enabling orangutans and other wildlife to move freely between the park and the buffer zone, ensuring their survival.
Our work focuses on working with and empowering local farmers and landholders to reforest their properties and adopt sustainable farming practices. Our team members include local and indigenous Karonese community members who manage reforestation and forest protection activities on the ground.
This map shows where we are and the surrounding rubber and palm oil plantations which we are working to reforest
find out more
Our strategy is a community-wide initiative to reforest farmland and other areas of degraded forest in and around Batu Kapal to restore the natural wildlife corridor. Read more below.
Support our campaign to secure and reforest critical pieces of land that will protect the buffer zone from being converted into palm oil plantations for LIFE.
Learn how the story begun and how we started our community-wide reforestation initiative.
Plant a rainforest tree to support our community-based reforestation program as part of our Trees for Life project. You will receive a certificate. Get in touch with us at [email protected] for more details
Our reforestation program is a community-wide initiative in the Batu Kapal buffer zone and surrounding villages, alongside Landak and Musam rivers, to help these communities reforest this critical biodiversity hotspot by planting trees on their properties as well as parcels of land that we secure from local landownders. We are hoping that in the long-term the newly grown trees will create a safe corridor connecting different parts of the forest, enabling wildlife to move freely across the jungle.
Our reforestation strategy is based around joining gaps in the wildlife corridor in the following stages:
- Identify gaps in the forest and map them
- Build rope bridges immediately to re-join these gaps
- Plant fast growing bamboo in these gap areas which grow up to 10 metres a year
- Plant fast growing canopy trees to replace bamboo long-term
- Plant slower growing fruit canopy trees like ficus trees that also provide food for the orangutans
We run several programs as part of our strategy which include:
- Rainforest Rescue – As part of our campaign to save the Sumatran Rainforest, we buy critical pieces of land in the Batu Kapal wildlife buffer zone to stop it being converted into palm oil plantations and to protect the wild orangutans and other wildlife that lives in this biodiversity hotspot.
- Batu Kapal Community Conservation Program – This program supports local farmers with orangutan conflict and crop-raiding and assists with reforestation on their properties to reconnect the gaps in the wildlife corridor. Through this initiative, the farmers plant a mix of edible fruit trees and rainforest canopy trees. We also plant durian trees (the orangutan favourite food source) away from farmland and compensated the farmer for any lost fruit.
- Tree nursery – The Sumatra Dream team run by indigenous Karonese community members grow tree saplings in their community nursery and work with farmers to replace their palm oil trees for a variety of durian, coconut, mahogany and rotan trees. This nursery is a great educational ground for children who participate in tree planting and come to learn more about reforestation and protecting the environment.
- Trees for Life – This tree adoption campaign allows us to plant rainforest trees to support our community reforestation program. Our donors receive tree adoption certificates.
Did you know?
Land clearance and illegal logging are a huge threat to the survival of the Orangutan and other species in the Batu Kapal buffer zone, and even in the protected areas of the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra.
Over 80% of orangutans live in unprotected forests. This puts them at an even greater risk of extinction since their forest habitat can be destroyed by the encroaching settlement, logging concessions, plantations and mining.
Many other species endemic to Sumatran rainforest are under imminent threat.
Thomas Leaf Monkeys are currently listed as vulnerable, which means that unless the circumstances threatening their survival and reproduction improve, they are likely to become another endangered species. Their main threat is habitat loss. They are therefore forced into farmland in search for food, having a reputation by farmers as ”crop pests.”
Call to action
Rescue the Rainforest!
Have you always wanted your very own piece of rainforest to protect, conserve and reforest?
Join us to rescue the Sumatran rainforest piece by piece, metre by metre, for less than the price of a cup of coffee a day!
By donating to buy land in this fragile wildlife corridor, you are helping us save the rainforest and protect the animals that live within it.
CareSumatra
Batu Kapal
Bohorok, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
Registered Address: CareSumatra Inc.
288 Colonial Drive
Norton Summit 5136
South Australia
- +61 409 691 995
- [email protected]