Toro

Toro is the field coordinator for Sampoiniet’s Conservation Response Unit (CRU, see project description), the same position as Hasballah (see portrait) for the camp in Mane. He was the first person I met from the field team. We went to the Sampoiniet’s camp together during my first week in Banda Aceh. While listening to Bob Marley we tried to communicate with my few words of Indonesian and his few words of English. He started the new position in February and quickly adapted. The team has a great appreciation for him and you can tell he has the desire to do well.

Toro’s first encounter with a wild elephant was in 1999 when he worked with the government on zoning protected areas. He studied forest management at university which taught him how to behave if there was a wild elephant encounter. Therefore, he was able to, “enjoy this first meeting.” During his classes, he imagined the animal as, “funny and good, but when we encounter an elephant, it is different, you never know what happens in the head of a wild elephant.” However, he describes his experience in conflict intervention as, “very exciting times. This is worrying, but it’s also a lot of adrenaline.” His main goal in choosing this work was to help local people so they can continue their work in the fields, but also because he feels, “sad” because elephants lose a little more of their habitat everyday.

Toro has almost always worked in the field of forest management around Sumatra. On projects ranging from the collection of environmental data, mapping, and patrols in protected areas. Though, it is not always easy to find work in this field and has also worked in advertising. After the tsunami, he worked for international NGOs to bring food to the victims in the Aceh Jaya region. He then got involved in the creation of a local NGO working for forest conservation and education. In 2008, he began working with Flora and Fauna International (FFI, see project description), first as the team leader of Community Rangers (local residents trained by FFI to monitor illegal activities like illegal logging and poaching), and more recently as a coordinator at the Sampoiniet’s CRU. He worked on the CRU project at the beginning of negotiations for land where the camp is now established and has worked on information campaigns among the local population.

When we started talking about the conflict between elephants and humans, Toro explained that there is more and more conflicts, it has become a very significant problem. He also explains that the growing conflicts are being looked at more closely because of the number of times the topic is now being discussed in the media. He said that, “during the civil war there was no information or report on conflicts with elephants. After the war, general interest turned to these conflicts.” Today, humans continue to encroach on elephant habitat, reducing it day by day, making it really hard to work on reducing the number of human-elephant conflicts.

According to Toro, the CRU is a great tool and has a very positive impact on the surrounding villagers. Before the CRU’s existed, Toro said that, “the farmers were less productive in the fields because they were always afraid of the arrival of elephants.” He also explains that in this region, crops grown and passed, “from father to son” and therefore, it is difficult to change the choice of crops that have been planted to those which repel elephants (some crops such as the chili or coffee are less attractive to elephants because they do not eat these products). The presence of the CRUs has allowed them to begin to think and hope that in the future they will grow coffee or chili for better co-habitation with the elephants. Toro finally emphasized how important it is that local people understand that it is in their interest to protect the forest. He believes that this can be done through educational programs, and also ecotourism: “if they can make money through tourism related to the natural environment around the CRU, then they will be able to help protect the forest.”