ADAM GARTRELL, JAKARTA
28 February 2009
The Advertiser
DIDY Wurjanto believes Sumatra's few remaining tigers are trying to send mankind a message.
The critically endangered big cats killed six people this month. Most, it seems, were illegal loggers, plying their trade in protected national parks in Indonesia's Jambi province.
"This is a very interesting case," said Mr Wurjanto, the head of Jambi's official nature conservancy agency, BKSDA.
"It's as if the tigers are sending a signal to Jambi's people that we have to be aware about using the forest's resources. We have to do it wisely and sustainably.
"If not, this is what will happen.
"Nature will become angry."
In Sumatra, nature has every right to be angry.
It is estimated almost half of Sumatra's natural forests have been cleared in the past 22 years, legally and illegally.
The wood is used for furniture, and to feed Indonesia's voracious pulp and paper mills.
The land often is converted into farmland and palm-oil plantations.
This intense deforestation has left Sumatra's wildlife - tigers, orang-utans, elephants and rhinos - with little room to move.
The cute and cuddly orang-utan's plight attracts most attention.
The tigers, however, are much closer to extinction.
The World Wildlife Fund estimates there are no more than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and perhaps as few as 250.
That is down from about 1000 in the late 1970s.
The WWF believes the tiger could be the first large predator to become extinct this century.
Experts, meanwhile, believe attacks like those seen this month will become more common.
Loggers will not be the only people who fall prey.
As tigers are forced to compete more and more with humans for living space and food, they will continue to move into more marginal areas where there is easy prey - livestock and villagers.
"I don't think it will stop," WWF Indonesia's Desmarita Murni said.
"It will continue to happen unless the situation improves.
"It's another reason why we need to protect these tigers' habitats and give them space."
The attacks, however, are unlikely to deter illegal loggers. More likely, they will spark retaliation.
Villagers in the province of Riau, which neighbours Jambi, reportedly speared three young tigers to death this month, after the cats strayed into their village in search of food.
If other villagers follow this lead, it will not be long before the tiger is history.
Some also believe the global economic downturn could force more people into the black market timber business.
Policy scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research, Krystof Obidzinski, says many Indonesians got into the business when the Asian financial crisis hit in the 1990s.
"Significant numbers of people are being put out of work already, so we will have to wait and see what impact that will have for illegal logging," he said.
When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office, the Indonesian government stepped up the fight against illegal logging.
Mr Obidzinski, however, says there have been very few convictions and very little money or timber recovered. "If we look at those indicators, it's a bit iffy." - AAP
The Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is a subspecies of tiger found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
It is the smallest of all tiger subspecies.
Male Sumatran tigers average 234cm in length from head to tail and weigh about 136kg. Its stripes are narrower than other subspecies of tigers' stripes and it has a more bearded and maned appearance.
The wild population is estimated at between 400 and 500 animals, occurring predominantly in the island's national parks.
Recent genetic testing has revealed the presence of unique genetic markers, which isolate Sumatran tigers from all mainland subspecies.
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