Hutan Harapan

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra lies Hutan Harapan, a refuge for Critically Endangered wildlife species including Sumatran Tigers, Sumatran Elephants and Helmeted Hornbills. The RSPB and partners are working hard to protect this important biodiversity hotspot for wildlife and local communities.

The lowland rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia are places of incredible biological diversity – rivalling the Amazon for the vast number of species they support. But these habitats are also particularly vulnerable to deforestation, with pressures coming from agricultural expansion, human settlements, illegal logging and wildlife trade.

In 2007, the RSPB, Burung Indonesia, and BirdLife International joined forces to protect a large swathe of this important habitat, and Hutan Harapan — meaning Rainforest of Hope — was born. Spanning almost 100,000 hectares of rainforest, Hutan Harapan is about two-thirds of the size of all of the RSPB's UK nature reserves combined (160,000 hectares). 

It also represents a sizeable chunk – around 20% – of the remaining lowland rainforest on Sumatra. As a result, it’s of vital importance to wildlife, providing a home for 312 species of bird and several endangered animals including the critically endangered Sumatran Elephant, Sumatran Tiger, and Helmeted Hornbill.

Through our work in Harapan, we spearheaded a new approach to rainforest conservation. Our partnership persuaded the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry to allow private organisations to assume control of land once used for timber production and manage it for forest protection and restoration. Thanks to this new policy, we gained the rights to manage Hutan Harapan as an Ecosystem Restoration Concession (ERC), under the first two such licences ever granted in Indonesia. There are now 14 other ERCs in Indonesia and in total they cover an area of more than 620,000 hectares. In 2021, the introduction of the Omnibus Law changed all Ecosystem Restoration Concession permits to Forest Utilisation Business Licence (PBPH). The new PBPH licence requires forest areas to be managed to generate income from businesses based on forests (e.g. payment for ecosystem services) and non-timber forest products (e.g. agroforestry).

Hutan Harapan continues to face multiple threats. The rainforest remains at risk from infrastructure development projects, poaching, illegal logging and encroachment.

Harapan’s future depends on innovative solutions to secure the forest and its biodiversity, and support its indigenous and local communities. 

Our vision for Harapan is to protect its forest for wildlife, ecosystems and local people, to help mitigate climate change, and act as a model for sustainable tropical forest management in Indonesia and elsewhere.