INSTALLATION OF BOUNDARY MARKERS FOR THE

I. BACKGROUND

The currently  remaining wildlife corridor is located in the south of the Leuser Ecosystem (LE) between Naca and Ie Jeurneh  villages in the subdistrict of Trumon Tengah in South Aceh district or precisely on both sides of the main road between Subulussalam and South Aceh.  This  2.0 km long corridor (2,700 ha) is a wildlife migration path from the Singkil Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary to Bengkung in Southeast Aceh.  This wildlife corridor is experiencing severe threats of encroachment as it is located very close to  settlement areas.  These threats to the Singkil Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary and the Singkil - Bengkung wildlife corridor  are caused mainly by the socio-economic gap in the community, the inproper public policy and weak law enforcement.

The boundary markers and sign boards are installed to verify the boundary between the wildlife corridor area and the community settlement area and prevent encroachment and other illegal activities.  The targets to be achieved are as follows:

1.    The presence of a clear  and reliable land tenure system that will support the development of a community-based forest protection and  management system  around the wildlife corridor

2.    The installation of 200 wildlife corridor boundary markers at 100 m interval along a distance of 20 km (whole area).

3.    The installation of 20 sign boards made of iron plate at strategic locations or locations having potential for the occurence of illegal activities around the corridor.

4.    The existence of a plan to raise the legal status of the corridor area beyond the Other Land Use status (APL) to be recognized as a production, protection or conservation forest area.  At the moment this is a strategic area of the Aceh provincial Natual Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA)

III.       IMPLEMENTATION METHOD AND SCHEDULE

The survey and the installation of  the Singkil - Bengkung  wildlife corridor  boundary markers  will be done by the Leuser International Foundation (LIF) in collaboration with the Aceh provincial BKSDA, the South Aceh district government, and the village community at Desa Naca and Ie Jeurneh.

It will take twelve months (December 2011 - November 2012) to implement this activity in several stages such as the preparing a work chart, conducting a boundary survey, socializing the program, reaching a settlement with third parties, making pillars and a notice board, and mounting the pillars and the notice board in the field, producing a final map of the corridor and getting the corridor boundary approved.

IV.    COMPLETED ACTIVITIES

Some of the completed activities relating to the setting up of boundary markers for the Singkil - Bengkung  wildlife corridor include coordination with the Aceh BKSDA, survey of the corridor boundary along a distance of 20 km at Desa Naca and Desa Ie Jeurneh, and socialization programs at these villages. While the activities currently in progress include making a settlement with third parties at the outermost corridor  boundary  area, and the selection / appointment of a third party to set up the Singkil - Bengkung wildlife corridor  boundary markers 

 

Singkil – Bengkung wildlife corridor boundary markers under construction

(Abu Hanifah Lubis / YLI)