Country/Region: Indonesia
Partner: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Way Kambas National Park (WKNP) is a flagship Indonesian protected area and the habitat of numerous critically endangered animals, including Sumatran tigers, Asian elephants, and Sumatran rhinos. Despite its conservation importance, WKNP suffers from wildlife poaching because it is relatively small, highly accessible, and contains numerous high-value species. In 2016, WCS Indonesia supported the park authority to establish a SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting System)-based patrolling system to increase anti-poaching patrol effectiveness. This strategy has succeeded in depressing poaching rates; however, additional actions were identified to further protect WKNP.
Since 2020, WCS and WKNP have been implementing an innovative crime prevention strategy — the Integrated Prevention Model (IPM) — to complement the existing law enforcement strategy with alternative livelihood support for several key poachers. It is also hoped that the success of the project may lead to the replication of this approach across Indonesia’s protected area network. This full-scale IPM will be developed based on an enhanced theory of change that is underpinned by criminology theory and the problem-oriented policing approach applied in the pilot IPM.
The project’s specific objectives are the following:
- Significantly increase WKNP management capacity through the design and implementation of the first full-scale IPM for this protected area.
- Reduce the principal threat of wildlife snaring by at least 50% in identified poaching hotspots.
- >50% of identified priority offenders are no longer engaged in illegal activities.
- Monitor and evaluate IPM performance.
- Develop a fully articulated template for the IPM to support its replication across Indonesia’s protected area network.