© Hkun Lat/WWF-Myanmar
It’s latex coming out of rubber trees!
Amidst a sea of oil palm plantations and deforested land on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, lies one of the last strongholds for biodiversity in the region—a rain forest known as Thirty Hills. Within the Thirty Hills forest resides a company known as PT ABT, which is managing around 100,000 acres of this forest as an ecosystem restoration concession.
Together with the Frankfurt Zoological Society and The Orangutan Project, WWF is working with PT ABT to restore areas of the forest, set aside some parts for income generation to benefit local and Indigenous communities, and protect the forest to benefit both nature and people.
In other words, this is a company working to drive profit from the conservation and restoration of the forest instead of from clearing it, all the while partnering with the local and Indigenous communities who live in or near the forest concession.
The rubber market may hold the key to long-term profitability for PT ABT. Natural rubber is harvested mainly in the form of the latex from rubber trees. PT ABT has begun developing a business plan for sustainable rubber production.
Rubber trees can restore and rehabilitate deforested areas in the concession, while also contributing to local communities’ livelihoods. Many of the local families also have rubber farms of their own, passing down the tradition of producing rubber through generations.
Learn more about how rubber may hold the key to conserving a tropical rain forest.
