WWF: Stain on Exports of Lampung Coffee
Thursday, 18 January, 2007 | 15:10 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: At least 17 percent of areas of South Bukit Barisan National Park at Sumatera, or 60 thousand hectares, have been converted into farming and plantation land, especially coffee plantations.

This was revealed in a report entitled “Gone in an Instant: How Illegal Coffee Trade Triggers Damage to the Habitats of Rhinos, Elephants and Sumatran Tigers Habitat tv South Bukit Barisan National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia,” that WWF Indonesia launched yesterday (01/17).

The conservation institution stated that the national park in Lampung and Bengkulu Provinces was a significant habitat for three large mammals in Sumatra: elephants, tigers and Sumatran rhinos.

As of 2004, the national park was declared by UNESCO as a world heritage site together with Kerinci Seblat and Leuser Mount National Parks.

Discontinued development, global markets, and unstable political situation, according to WWF Indonesia, have resulted in forest damages in these regions.

“Should the existing deforestation still occur, there will be total extinction of the three animals within a decade,” said the institution in a press conference.

The WWF study has discovered the coffee trade route from the national parks to buyers at the international level through chains of general trade.

The tracing was carried out from coffee farmers to local traders in villages, sub districts, regencies, and exporters at Bandar Lampung as well as buyers at international level.

The study, conducted between October 2003 and June 2004, found that more than 40 coffee exporters in Lampung have exported coffee to 52 countries in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia.

Total coffee volume exported from Lampung reached 216,271 tons in 2003.

About 45.1 percent, or 97,547 tons, were proved to originate from coffee planted in national parks.

The volume of exports rose to 283,032 tons in 2004 and 334,864 tons in 2005.

“There was a large possibility that buyers did not realize that their coffee have been mixed with coffee from conservation land,” said Nazir Foead, Policy & Corporate Engagement Director of WWF Indonesia.

WWF