根據世界自然基金會(WWF)印尼分會、科學家及保育團體的調查發現，就在印尼蘇門答臘島上最後的大型森林中，為了開築道路，每天這片原始森林中，上演著伐木、推土機、挖土機與砍伐殆盡的戲碼。
據調查人員舉報，為了興建公路，Bukit Tigapuluh森林景觀區被一切為二，這已經嚴重干擾到2個原住民部落和瀕危動物，如大象、老虎及長臂猿。地方團體稱它為一條「合法性有問題」的公路，他們表示，這條公路主要服務的對象是亞洲紙業公司(Asia Pulp & Paper)及其合作夥伴所僱用的伐木卡車。而亞洲紙業公司是全球數一數二的造紙公司。
調查人員也發現，在Bukit Tigapuluh森林開公路，所帶來的威脅不僅如此，它還可能引來盜伐的問題、並進一步導致林地被砍除轉作其他植物、甚至是開發其他道路──凡此種種都與亞洲紙業公司及其合作夥伴脫離不了關係。
部份遭清除的森林位於一個特別保護區預定地範圍，該保護區為約90隻蘇門答臘長臂猿的棲地，這批長臂猿最近才被野放在保護區中，是150多年來首度實施的創舉。
調查報告表示，脫序或非法的道路開發對這種區域的危害尤其嚴重，它會讓這個區域更容易受到盜獵、非法墾殖與非法農園的傷害，進而危及當地原住民的生存。在這次被亞洲紙業所影響的範圍裡，就有一個部落是完全仰賴Bukit Tigapuluh森林維生的。
WWF印尼分會的森林計劃主任表示：「我們強烈要求亞洲紙業及其合作夥伴，在尚未確認生態的、環境的、文化的保育價值以前，停止任何原始森林的開發行為。也必須停止購買來自這個區域的木材。同時，我們也呼籲政府必須切實執法，只要違反印尼保育法規，任何形式的森林清除行為均須加以制止。」
印尼世界自然基本會的報告發現，原始景觀對於以下各方的存續是非常重要的：Talang Mamak與Suku Anak Dalam兩個原住民部落在此生活；區域內已紀錄到198種鳥類與59種哺乳動物生存的生物多樣性生態；這片景觀區有至少100頭蘇門答臘虎在此生存，且是全球專家公認能存續最久的老虎棲息地；Bukit Tigapuluh景觀區的低地森林，是特別適合蘇門答臘象生存的重要棲地，目前蘇門答臘象已越來越稀有；此區是亞齊與北蘇門答臘之外僅存的猿類自然棲地，其低地雨林更特別適合嚴重瀕危的蘇門答臘長臂猿，法蘭克福動物園學會從2003年起在此地野放蘇門答臘長臂猿。
目前這分調查報告已置於網路上開放下載，請點選這裡
Cut timber, bulldozers, excavators and clearcuts in the natural forest for road reconstruction are common sights today in one of the last large forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, field and remote sensing investigations by WWF Indonesia and other scientific and conservation groups have found.
The lives of two tribes of indigenous people as well as endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans are being disrupted by construction of a highway that bisects the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape, the investigators report.
Calling it a "a legally questionable highway," the groups report that the road is being used by logging trucks serving one of the world's largest paper companies, Asia Pulp & Paper, and its partners.
The investigators found that clearing for the highway through the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape is part of a larger threat that includes illegal logging, clearing for plantations and other roadbuilding, much of it linked to operations of Asia Pulp & Paper and its partners.
Part of the area being cleared is in a proposed Specific Protected Area that serves as habitat for about 90 Sumatran orangutans recently introduced into the area for the first time in more than 150 years.
"Unplanned and illegal road building is especially devastating to such areas, opening them up to poaching, illegal settlement and plantation activities and undermining the viability of indigenous communities. One of the tribes threatened by APP-linked activities is wholly dependent on the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape," the report states.
"We urge APP and its partners to stop clearing any more natural forest whose ecological, environmental and cultural conservation values have not been determined and to stop sourcing any of its purchased wood from such forests," said Ian Kosasih, director of WWF-Indonesia's Forest Program. "We also call on the government to ensure an end to all forms of forest clearance found to violate national Indonesian laws and regulations."
The WWF-Indonesia report finds this Landscape is important for the survival of:
- Indigenous Tribes of the Talang Mamak and Suku Anak Dalam (also called Orang Rimba or Kubu), both of which live inside this natural forest block.
- High biodiversity : 198 bird species and 59 mammal species have been recorded to date.
- Critically Endangered Sumatran Tigers : The Landscape was deemed by a collaboration of world tiger experts as having the "highest probability of persistence of tiger populations over the long term" and has habitat to support at least 100 tigers.
- Endangered Sumatran Elephants: The lowland forest in Bukit Tigapuluh is of critical importance as suitable natural habitat for Sumatran elephants becomes increasingly rare.
- Critically Endangered Sumatran Orangutans: This is the only existing wild habitat for this ape outside the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. The presence of large contiguous lowland rainforest, an ideal orangutan habitat, led the Frankfurt Zoological Society to choose Bukit Tigapuluh for re-introduction of Sumatran orangutans beginning in 2003.
The report, "Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Threatens Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape," is online here.
全文及圖片詳見：ENS
作者
In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.
