By Syamsidar
Pekanbaru (02/12)-About 63 ha of illegal oil palm plantation inside Tesso Nilo National Park (TNNP)was destroyed through joint operation conducted on 26-27 November 2010. 250 personels from police, army, forest rangers from the conservation authority of Riau and Tesso Nilo National Park were deployed for the operation. Two units of excavator and ten units of chainsaw were used to help clear the park from illegal oil palm trees. The operation went well without any significant obstacles though itdid not manage to clear the 200 ha targetted illegal oil palm plantation in the two-day operation.
The operation to halt encroachment in TNNP is a real commitment of both central and local government to tackling encroachment in Tesso Nilo mentioned on the agreement signed in August 2008. Series of meetings and consolidation in Forestry Department and local government had been conducted since then. Socialization to make the encroachers understand the status of the park and the commitment of government to tackling encroachment in the park hase been intensively conducted. At the beginning of the November, the national park office had disseminated warning letter reminding the encroachers to stop doing illegal activities inside the park and leave the park.

“The operation ran well although we were only able to clear 50 ha of area out of total 200 ha of the illegal plantation. The old oil palm trees slowed down the work,” said the Head of Tesso Nilo National Park office, drh. Hayani Suprahman, MSc.
The operation to clean up illegal oil palm plantation is part of effort to secure the park from encroachment. The Tesso Nilo National Park office and related institutions, Hayani says, have done some efforts to handle encroachment in TNNP both in persuasive way through socialization, warning letter and law enforcement. However encroachment still continues and flourishes.  

""This operation is the real action of the government’s joint commitment to tackling illegal oil palm plantation inside TNNP. It is our target to combat encroachment in TNNP. Then, it will be followed with rehabilitation program,” he added.

Tesso Nilo National Park with total 83,068 of ha is located under the administrative of Pelalawan and Indragiri Hulu District. This is the remaining low land rain forest is Sumatra. This forest is also expected as an area to provide alternative solution for human-elephant conflict problems in Riau.

Director of Forest Securing & Investigation of Forestry Ministry, Raffles B. Panjaitan said that the Forestry Ministry’s program within these five years is enforcing law against forest encroachment and restoring degraded forest. Tesso Nilo is one of the priority of the program.
Securing the national park from encroachment will be done in stages. Some 28,000 ha of encroached area inside TNNP was converted to oil palm plantation and settlement. According to data in 2009, about 1,500 house holds inhabiting the park are mostly resident migrants. ”Only few local people encroach the national park that is about 60 households, “ Hayani said.
The execution of the operation conducted last week was backed up by Riau Police Head Quarter. The Head of Riau Police, Brigjen Pol Drs Suedi Husein, SH said that Riau Police supports the law enforcement in TNNP such as helping the TNNP office to disseminate appeal of stopping encroachment in TNNP. For the encroachers who ignorethe warning will be brought to court. However the police will work together with the civil investigation from the conservation authority.