Working with the background to take the real actions on the environmental concerns and save endangered animals, SUMECO is officially established in 2014. Starting from the ecotourism business, I am as the owner of company wholeheartedly agree to share the profits of the company to support and run the wildlife rescue mission of SUMECO.
Today, one by one such as birds, mammals, reptiles and even rare animal species are being brought out of the jungle for the animal trade, hardwood trees are being cut down for the timber industry, rainforests are being deforested for the palm oil plantation, and only a small number of people can realize that this is a serious destruction of Sumatra’s ecosystem. I have been conducting a study on the ground in Aceh province from 2008 to 2011.
Aceh was chosen for my study on the ground about the wildlife poaching and trading because Aceh is known to be a region that accommodates the highest concentration of Sumatra’s biodiversity. At 2012, I had the opportunity to visit Gunung Leuser National Park in Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra province to continue my monitoring and observation with two American primatologists.
Gunung Leuser National Park is well-known to be a region with the highest concentration of Pongo abelii (Sumatran orangutan). The Leuser ecosystem is an area of forest located in the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Covering more than 2.6 million hectares, but not more than 1 million hectares are the protected-zone, it is also one of the richest expanses of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia, it is the last place on earth where Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger and Sumatran orangutan are found within one area and it has been declared as the world’s heritage.
The born of SUMECO in North Sumatra province was my pure idea, it is expected to be an environmental organization that fighting for the animals in the front line in Bukit Lawang.