Prince Charles praises rainforest initiative

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has paid a visit to one of the world's most innovative rainforest conservation projects. On Sunday 2nd November he spent more than two hours meeting villagers from the indigenous Bathin Sembilan tribe and staff working at Harapan Rainforest, a forest restoration initiative to protect and restore 250,000 acres of lowland habitat hosting Sumatran tigers, Asian elephants and almost 300 species of bird.

The ambitious scheme is being run by conservation groups Burung Indonesia, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Birdlife International, which helped the Indonesian Government develop a new law to allow them to manage the rainforest. The Indonesian Forestry Minister, Malam Sambat Kaban, joined the Prince on his tour. The Prince's visit to Harapan Rainforest is part of his three-country Far East tour. He walked along a new nature trail, planted a tree and was shown tree nurseries, a new herbarium and a pilot restoration plot. The Prince said: 'This project has to succeed.' Minister Kaban congratulated the Harapan Rainforest team for their pioneering work saying that ten companies had expressed interest in following the example set by the project. This could mean the restoration of more than 2.5 million acres (3,800 square miles) of Indonesian rainforest.

Before the new law came into force, those licensed to manage commercial rainforests were obliged to extract timber and often did so unsustainably. Now the forest is being nurtured to maturity, creating wildlife habitats, reducing flooding, cutting carbon emissions and providing employment for local people. More than 140 people are working at Harapan Rainforest as wardens, guides and wildlife experts. Some have been trained to identify rare plants by staff from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Lowland rainforest on Sumatra, when left to mature, is one of the world's greatest wildlife hotspots and is thought to host more plantlife than any other place on earth. Most of the area has been logged in the past and huge swathes of rainforest elsewhere on the island have been lost to oil palm or timber plantations. The Harapan Rainforest project is the first example of the new law in action, and safeguards the area for at least 100 years.

Huge Potential
Chairwoman of Burung Indonesia, professor Ani Mardiastuti and Graham Wynne, RSPB Chief Executive were among those welcoming HRH The Prince of Wales to Harapan Rainforest.

Professor Ani Mardiastuti said: 'The people of Indonesia admire HRH The Prince of Wales for his tireless fight to save rainforests. His visit to Harapan Rainforest is a great honour and reinforces our determination to conserve the forest.'

Grahan Wynne said: 'The visit of HRH The Prince of Wales underlines just how significant this project is. The support from the Indonesian Government has created huge opportunities and we hope to hear very soon that we have secured the management rights to the whole of the Harapan site.'