MEDAN, Indonesia — An investigation into the violent death of an orangutan in northern Sumatra in January has shone a light on the persistent problem of human-wildlife conflict and illegal…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A politician arrested on charges of bribery last month in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province was also found to be keeping several rare animals as as illegal pets,…
MEDAN, Indonesia — At the corner of Sei Batanghari Road in Medan, the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, kindergarten students run around a building in their school uniforms. The…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Conservation authorities in Indonesia have launched an investigation into alleged animal abuse by a public zoo where Sumatran tigers have been found emaciated and apparently eating grass.…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A recent clash between Indigenous community members in Sumatra and workers from a pulpwood plantation company has marred ongoing efforts to resolve a decades-long land conflict. At…
SOUTH TAPANULI, Indonesia — The death toll from a landslide at the site of a hydropower plant being built in Indonesia’s Batang Toru forest has risen to 10, with three…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Smugglers managed to ship more than 7,000 birds, including wild-caught songbirds, by air from Sumatra to Java in Indonesia, highlighting the country’s weak enforcement against the deeply…
JAKARTA — The COVID-19 pandemic has become the latest threat to the Tapanuli orangutan in Indonesia, the rarest great ape species of all and one already under severe pressure from…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Activists have deplored the recent jailing of two indigenous community members in Sumatra in a land conflict involving an affiliate of pulp and paper giant Royal Golden…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Conservation and wildlife activists have called on Indonesian authorities to press criminal charges against a local politician found to have kept a threatened baby orangutan as a…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced a boat captain to 15 months in prison for attempting to smuggle thousands of horseshoe crabs out of the country to…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Police in Indonesia have arrested five people over the death of two journalists whose bodies were found at an oil palm plantation, including the alleged owner of…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Two Indonesian journalists who had reported on an illegal oil palm plantation in Sumatra while also allegedly trying to gain control of the crop have been found…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Police in Indonesia insist that an outspoken environmental activist found dead under suspicious circumstances in the Sumatran city of Medan last week was killed in a motorcycle…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Environmental activists in Indonesia have raised suspicions over the death this week of a human rights defender who was a staunch advocate of communities threatened by oil…
Off the coast of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, the Malacca Strait was once home to dolphins. In their place, there are now barges filled with coal, brought by sea to…
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A recent seizure of two young orangutans from households in Indonesia has once again highlighted the lack of legal consequences for people who keep the near-extinct…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Police have charged the brother of a top official in Sumatra with clearing a protected forest for a palm oil plantation. Musa Idishah, better known as Dodi…
Millions of fish in floating cages died suddenly this week in Lake Toba, the biggest lake in Indonesia. E. Naibaho, a local aquafarmer, noticed the fish in his floating pens…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced three men, including a former soldier, to two years in jail for illegally trading in body parts from a critically endangered…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Several NGOs in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have established a joint team of legal experts to focus on addressing environmental crimes in the region. “This team is…
Dozens of indigenous people gathered in a village in western Indonesia last month to protest against the development of a planned 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam that threatens to evict them from land they hold sacred.
RUMAH KINANGKUNG — Authorities were explaining the rules governing protected animals to residents of this North Sumatran village when a man appeared, carrying a small, scaly creature by the tail.…
MEDAN, Indonesia — A key stopover site for migratory shorebirds in western Indonesia is imperilled as the area’s mangrove forests are exponentially developed for human land use, according to research…
MEDAN, Indonesia — The top mining official in North Sumatra has been arrested for corruption. Police in the province caught Eddy Saputra Salim red-handed taking a bribe. It was just…
No roads shall pass through Mount Leuser National Park. So said the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry in response to just such a proposal from the governor of North Sumatra…
BINJAI, Indonesia — A man on the Southeast Asian country's main western island of Sumatra said goodbye to his pet crocodile this week, handing it over to authorities after learning…
An Indonesian soldier was arrested for wildlife trafficking in Sumatra on Saturday in the latest indication of military involvement in organized crime. The man and a civilian were intercepted in…
When the sun rose over Indonesia's giant Lake Toba on Wednesday last week, fish farmers saw that death in the night had visited their floating cages, and taken everything. By…
Out over the corrugated roofs and laundry lines dotted about Kinangkung village, forest canopy begins to fade into the foothills of Sumatra’s most active volcano. Here around 30 kilometers west…