Way Kambas National Park pilot project for habitat regeneration, fire protection, and elephant conflict mitigation in Sumatra, Indonesia

"The purpose of this project is to address three threats to elephant populations in Way Kambas National Park, Sumatra: 1) Loss of habitat and intentionally set fires; 2) elephant mortality due to human-elephant conflict; and 3) suspected increases in salinity in Park water sources forcing wildlife to leave the protected area in search of fresh water.

The recipient will address these threats with activities that focus on regenerating and replanting forests, mitigating human-elephant conflict, and providing sources of fresh water for both wild elephants and fire suppression.

Specific activities related to reforestation include: survey and identification of project site, recruitment and training of personnel, construction of project base camp and related infrastructure, survey of naturally regenerating trees in the project site with bird and bat perches installed to facilitate seed dispersal, establishment of plant nursery for propagation of food plants attractive to wild elephants, creation of a fire-management plan, purchase of firefighting equipment, creation and maintenance of fire-breaks, and provision of a dual 24-hour fire and elephant watch system.

Activities related to the mitigation of human-elephant conflict include: recruitment and training of field staff for early elephant warning duty, provision of a dual 24-hour fire and elephant watch system, establishment of a village partnership for sharing responsibility of fire and elephant warning systems, and delivery of an awareness education program to the community.

The recipient will monitor salinity of water sources in the Park, construct artificial ponds to collect rain water for both fire response and elephants, and monitor pond usage by wildlife with camera traps. ..This award period of performance will be one year; however the project is expected to extend over a two-year period.

Pending receipt of financial and performance reports and availability of funds, the award may be extended for an additional yea