By IPS Correspondents
CIKANANGA, Java, Indonesia, Nov 12 2003 (IPS)

”Early morning is the best time to listen to nature’s orchestra,” said Andi Prima Setiadi, director of the Cikananga Animal Rescue Centre. ”You’ll hear singing you have never heard elsewhere.”

”Singing” may be an indulgent term, but the variety of cries that echo across the 1.5-hectare compound of the centre is certainly unique – the calls of a tiger, orangutans, bears, eagles, deer and panthers can all be distinctly heard.

The Cikananga centre is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and its habitat in Indonesia. Set up over two years ago, the centre supports the government of Indonesia by returning illegally trapped and captured animals to the wild.

”It’s a difficult job bringing the animals here,” said Alta, a volunteer with the centre. ”The hunters are usually tough men who are ready to fight us. They don’t want us to stop them because it is good business for them.”

Willie Smits, director of the Gibbon Foundation, blames corruption amongst local officials and police as being a key problem. ”Many of them can be easily paid off,” he said. ”Animal hunters and traders, who get huge profits from this business, know this well.”

The Foundation supports the work at Cikananga by providing funds and facilities for the treatment of the confiscated animals, many of which need medical aid or must recover from long periods spent in trappers’ cages.

Despite its successes, the centre is a small effort against the tide of illegal trade in wild animals in Indonesia. Widodo Sukohadi Ramono, director of Biodiversity Conservation with the Indonesian Forestry Ministry, emphasised that he is ”not exaggerating” by saying that the value of illegal trade in wild animals is catching up with that of drug trafficking.

Ramono added, ”The value does not include the environmental loss that cannot be accounted for by economic calculation.” He said destination countries for the smugglers are China, Japan, Hong Kong, the U.S. and the Middle East. According to Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry, the country has lost a notional 650 million U.S. dollars in the last two years as a result of such smuggling.

For many of the residents of Cikananga, the value of the animals is irrelevant to the issue. ”We are doing this because we don’t want to lose the animals – we want them to remain in our forest,” said Ajat Sudrajat, a Cikananga resident who joined the centre two years ago. ”They are part of our lives.”

Sudrajat explained the community feeling about wildlife – its relationship with the residents and the illegal trade in it. ”We have been in this land since we were born. We live on its soil, breathe its air, and get along with its creatures. We are happy with all these. Now we feel changes in the nature. If we lose them, we will not be happy any more.”

Yet to pursue the mission of the centre requires more than just the conviction that the community possesses about the need to preserve their web of life. They realise that often those who illegally keep protected animals are the powerful and influential – like high-ranking officials, army generals, well-connected businessmen, and popular artists.

The battle for preservation that then ensues is often an uneven one. ”Once we were successful in seizing protected animals owned by a popular businessman here, but then he sued us,” recalled Ajat.

”He won in the court,” Ajat went on. ”He could take the animals back and instead we had to pay a fine. We knew he paid off the judges, lawyers and police. You can imagine how disappointed we were.”

Even on occasions when they seemed to have the law literally on their side, a rescue effort has unraveled. On being informed of a protected animal being kept in a cage in a residence, centre volunteers planned a seizure.

Two policemen, a doctor and an assistant from the centre entered the house, to find that the owner was an army colonel. The policemen retreated. ”The colonel told us not to make a problem with him and to just go home,” related Ajat. ”We went away empty-handed.”

The success stories however make up for the disappointments. The centre finds that of late more people are voluntarily surrendering protected animals, and admit that they know it is both illegal and harms the environment. Ajat suspects that some of those who do so can no longer afford to care for the animals, but appreciates their being brought to the centre anyway.

Close to 1,500 animals are housed in the Cikananga rescue centre. So far, 32 have been released into their habitat while the rest continue to be treated or are recuperating from capture. Most are from the surrounding forest, and confiscated from animal trappers by local residents working together with rangers and local officials to prevent smuggling.

”They cannot get away easily from us and they know it,” said Smits. Indonesia has often been highlighted because of the illegal trade in wild animals, despite the country being a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1978.

The volunteers at the Cikananga centre are committed and enthusiastic, but need experts to step in at times. ”When an animal gets sick or is suffering from a disease, we need doctors and scientist to check and treat them,” said Ajat.

What the centre lacks in expert knowledge it more than makes up for by the zeal with which it tackles the issue of protected species smuggling. Having successfully engaged the local community, it is now seeing its efforts beginning to pay off, as more healthy rescuees lend their voices to Cikananga’s early morning orchestra.

Excerpt: