IWT: Illegal Wildlife Trade Project
The project aims to protect endangered species in Rimbang Baling Wildlife Sanctuary (RBWR), Riau, Sumatra, which is targeted by poaching. RBWR is located within the Central Sumatra Tiger Conservation Landscape, an area critical to the long-term survival of Sumatran tigers.
This project has resulted in the following successes: 1) Greater levels of Fatwa awareness in the target villages and an increase in social pressure to abide by the Fatwa's teachings; 2) More diversified and sustainable livelihood options for 350 families in the landscape, and a commitment by village authorities to integrate these sustainable livelihood models into future village development plans; and 3) Improved detection and monitoring of IWT (Illegal Wildlife Trade) in the landscape, which will bolster WWF's and the Indonesian government's ability to crack down on IWT in Riau province. This project supported the reduction of tiger trade in particular, reducing the annual killing of tigers from two to one, and obtaining commitments from 8 of 11 known tiger hunters to stop their poaching activities, with five now actively working with the TPUs as community IWT informants. This project has also brought to light the extent of other IWT activities and networks in the landscape, especially related to local bird trade.
