Indonesia to Build More Wildlife Crossings As Part of Environment Conservation

More wildlife crossings will be built across the archipelago, according to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to reduce infrastructure-development disruption to wildlife conservation and protected species.

He stated that the wildlife crossings were built as the Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road passed through Sumatran elephant habitat spread across two cities and two regencies, home to approximately 76 Sumatran elephants. The 131-kilometer toll road began construction in July 2017 and was finished and inaugurated by the President on September 25, 2020. It is connected to the Trans Sumatra highway system.

The Sumatran elephant is one of 25 species listed in the Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation Director General’s Decree No. 180/2015 as being threatened with extinction. Regulation No. 106/2018 of the Environment and Forestry Ministry also protects the species.

Since 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has designated the Sumatran elephant as “critically endangered” on its Red List. The Sumatran elephant has lost more than 70% of its habitat and population in the last 25 years. At the current rate of tropical forest destruction, some predict that the species will become extinct in Sumatra’s jungles by 2030.

Read also : Climate Change Affects Animal Welfare in Multifaceted Ways

The Sigli-Banda Aceh toll road, in addition to the wildlife crossings on the Pekanbaru-Dumai toll road, has a bridge structure for elephants, a precast concrete crossing for reptilians, and a cable canopy bridge for primates.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said that synchronizing infrastructure developments with conservation efforts such as wildlife crossings was a response to concerns that massive infrastructure developments could disrupt the ecosystem and the flora and fauna.