By Syamsidar

Pekanbaru (05/12)-On 5 December 2009, 120 students began planting 3,600 seedlings consisting of ten species of native forest tree that were planned to be planted in Tesso Nilo National Park. The tree planting action, a collaboration between Tesso Nilo National Park office and WWF-Indonesia Program Riau marked the restoration initiative in Tesso Nilo National Park. This activity was opened directly by The District Head of Pelalawan Rustam Effendi accompanied by the Head of The Regional Parliament of Pelalawan Agustiar and officials of Regional Executive Conference.

Ria, a female Flying Squad Elephant welcomed those two regional high officials by putting a string of flowers around their neck. The Pelalawan District and his entourage then had 1 km motorcycle ride to get to the tree planting location. In the tree planting location, a simple ceremony was conducted. The Head of Tesso Nilo National Park Office, Hayani Suprahman handed over the seedling to The District Head of Pelalawan to mark the beginning of restoration in the national park.

The Head of Pelalawan District, Rustam Effendi is planting a tree in Tesso Nilo National Park to mark the restoration initiative in Tesso Nilo. © WWF-Indonesia, 2009

Hayani Suprahman said, ""This tree planting action in Tesso Nilo National Park is an initial pace to begin restoration initiative in Tesso Nilo National Park as well as to support the Indonesia Plants Tree Movement."" He added, ""Rehabilitating Tesso Nilo National Park is a part of the national park management plan and for that reasons it needs support from stakeholders so that it can work in optimal way.""

In his welcoming speech, the District Head of Pelalawan said,""I hail this action in Tesso Nilo National Park and I hope this will be able to stimulate other similar activity to be carried on.""He also mentioned that restoration effort is an important way to maintain forest sustainability since our forest is now facing a serious problem due to illegal logging and other irresponsible practices. He emphasized that the tree planting action was a significant effort to preserve Tesso Nilo as Pelalawan's asset.

The Head of Tesso Nilo National Park, Hayani Suprahman is handing a seedling over to the Head of Pelalawan District. © WWF-Indonesia, 2009

Participation of young generation in the Tesso Nilo National Park's restoration initiative is a pride thing as in the future they will become leaders and inherit . This tree planting is part of series of environmental education activites to introduce Tesso Nilo National Park involving students from 6 high schools in Pekanbaru and two high schools in Pelalawan District.

On May, 104 students from those 8 high schools participated in seedling activities of forest tree in Tesso Nilo. 400 seeds resulted from the activity were parts of the seeds that were planted in the tree palnting location in Tesso Nilo National Park. About 3,200 other seeds were donation from the Forestry Department.

Two participants of senior high school students are planting trees in Tesso Nilo National Park. © WWF-Indonesia, 2009

Tesso Nilo is a remaining lowland forest in Sumatra located in Riau Province. Some parts of the forest were designated as Tesso Nilo National Park exactly at 19 July 2004 covering an area of 38,576 hectares.

Two elephant habitat covers the area inside the park and outside, so the park needs to be extended to reduce human-elephant conflict. On 15 October 2009, based on the regulation of Ministry of. Forestry Number. P.14/Menhut-II/2006, the area was extended to 83,000 hectares.

It is the commitment between Department of Forestry, local government of Riau Province and Pelalawan District to extend this park and manage encroachment, eliminate illegal logging practices and forest and land fire as stated in the MoU signed by the three respective parties in August 2008. With the recent status of the park extension, a serious effort to tackle encroachment as the biggest threat to the area needs to be immediately done.