Road-building plans threaten endangered Indonesia tigers

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia is preparing to greenlight the construction of several highways through a park that has one of the world’s few viable populations of wild tigers, conservationists warned Thursday. The move would be especially alarming, they said, because it would come just months after the government signed a deal in Russia promising to do everything possible to save the iconic big cats from extinction. There are about 3,500 tigers left in the wild worldwide. The Kerinci Seblat National Park, which spans four provinces on Sumatra island, is home to an estimated 190 of them — more than in China, Vietnam, Nepal, Laos and Cambodia combined. “We need to do everything possible to stop this,” said Mahendra Shrestha of Save the Tigers in Washington D.C. “It would be disastrous to one of the core tiger habitats in Asia.” The plans for four roads through the park would open up previously inaccessible land to villagers and illegal loggers, divide breeding grounds and movement corridors, and destroy vulnerable ecosystems. Shrestha said it makes a “mockery” of the agreement signed by 13 countries that still have wild tigers to preserve and enhance critical habitats as part of efforts to double populations by 2002. … The Forestry Ministry, which would have to sign off on any deal and request parliamentary changes to Indonesian law on protected land, has remained tightlipped about the plans except to say building roads for development in protected areas is illegal. “It’s still just a proposal,” ministry spokesman Masyhud, who goes by one name, told The Associated Press. Still, conservationists are worried because regional leaders — who increasingly hold sway in the nation of 237 million — are pushing the plans. With no visible pushback from the central government, the regional leaders may have little problem bulldozing through their proposal. …

Road building plan in Sumatran park threatens Critically Endangered tigers via Mongabay