Promoting Better Management Practices
Dealing with the forest conversion issue at the source
Working with buyers and retailers is not enough. At the production level, we must ensure that forests from Sumatra to Congo do not pay the price of our need for palm oil and coffee.
Hence, sustainable agriculture practices need to be put in place, urgently, without increasing production costs.The Better Management Practices designed by WWF and partners are all about making sure that the impact of forest conversion on natural forests and biodiversity is reduced, from human-wildlife conflict resolution to integrated pest management and waste minimisation and utilisation.
Best Management Practices in brief: what does it mean?
Mitigating human–wildlife conflict in palm oil plantations
As plantations gnaw into natural forests, endangered species such as the Sumatran elephant are increasingly restricted to smaller habitats. As a result, they come into contact (and conflict) with people and settlements more frequently.
Can we keep humans and elephants separate?These clashes are partly the cause for the reduction in Riau Province's elephant population, from an estimated 700 to 350 individuals in the 7 years up to 2006.
So how to keep elephants and humans apart? WWF has implemented "flying squads", which consist of rangers with noise and light-making devices, a pick-up truck and trained elephants who drive wild elephants back into the forest whenever they threaten to enter villages.
Near Tesso Nilo National Park, a protected area declared with the help of WWF, flying squads are showing results, reducing losses caused by wild elephants to local communities that live in the area.
 Since the flying squad began operating, I have started to sleep well again. Salim owner of a rice field and a small oil palm grove. |
