What are the new insights youve got towards conservation after the trip?

Will you consider devoting yourself to conservation for your career after this trip?
Date: 15
th
January, 2014 to 28
th
January, 2014
Venues: Medan, Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), Kilang Alay, in North Sumatra

I was delighted to meet Mr. Panut Hadisiswoyo, Founder of Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), and other
staff of OIC, particularly members of Human Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU), including Ricko,
Kriezna, Rabin and Rudi, and GLNP Restoration Team, including Ari and Rio. These people are very
passionate about conversation, skillful, knowledgeable and exceptionally friendly. They taught me a lot
about conservation of Sumatran orangutans, GLNP and forest restoration.

Kason and I learnt and helped setting up transects in a forest for future monitoring of orangutans. There
were numerous difficulties to tackle in this task. First, we had to walk on paths of wavy contour and
different types of stratums, from swarm to clay. We also learnt to use GPS for marking locations. On the
second day, it rained heavily, which exacerbate the situation on that day and the day after a lot because the
ground became very slippery. Nevertheless, we managed to overcome these with the aid of HOCRU
members. To me, these are the biggest challenges in these 14 days.

Then, we went to Kilang Alay, where there are rubber and palm oil tree plantations, which also mean that
there was deforestation. I was stunned by the scenery of a deforestated area and I felt sorry for that. We
came here with HOCRU members to monitor orangutans living in this fragmented forest. I remembered
that we sat down and waited silently for more than an hour for the orangutan to move. We then tried to
track it down but we lost it.

We headed to the restoration site in GLNP. In there, we met Ari and Rio, who are members of the
restoration team, and Paul Daley, a passionate volunteer from Australia. They were kind enough to show us
around and taught us about tree planting, identification of seeds of local tree species and making potting
mix. Other than tree planting on barren land, we also went into the primary forests to collect seeds and
seedlings of local tree species for future use. In spare time, we went to the nearby secondary forest and
searched for orangutans. I am glad that we were fortunate enough to saw 4 orangutans in 2 occasions
within 4 days. This is such a treat for us.

After these 14 days, I realized that conservation in the field is not easier than construction work. We
trekked from east to west, drove from north to south, trying to complete various designated tasks. It is very
laborious and sometimes, quite strenuous.

I feel grateful to be chosen to participate in this programme as it offered me much hands-on and
life-changing experiences. At the beginning, I thought we were just there to observe, and there was not
much for us to do as we did not speak Indonesian, and will not be able to pick up the tasks within such a
short period of time. However, the staff allowed us to help and was patient to guide us through the work.

NGOs are working under limited supply of money and resources.