The Leuser Legacy Landscape is a program advanced by the Wildlife Conservation Society – Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), through Gunung Leuser National Park (Balai Besar Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser, GLNP), the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam, BKSDA), and the Aceh Forestry and Environment Agency. The program aims to support biodiversity conservation across the Leuser landscape and is centered around five core objectives:
- Strengthen provincial land-use and sustainable development planning processes to protect forests and their ecosystem services;
- Strengthening the management capacity of the GLNP, BKSDA Aceh and Forest Management Unit (FMU) VI authorities;
- Improve landscape management of biodiversity, forests and ecosystem services;
- Improve rural community livelihoods in the protected area buffer zone; and
- Implement a monitoring, evaluation and learning system and social safeguards system.
Leuser legacy landscape advanced considerable milestones in the execution of its environmental and social action plan (ESAP). The program’s environmental and social management framework (ESMF) was finalized with support of an external consultancy to consolidate the ESAP measures. In the three years of program implementation, 93% of the ESAP measures were implemented, 7% are well in progress. The main program ESAP achievements are listed below:
Improved governance
- Stakeholder engagement plan included in environmental and social management framework (ESMF).
- Developed a program-level environmental and social monitoring framework to monitor and address program risks and impacts.
- Assisted Aceh’s 20-year development planning through multistakeholder dialogue and strategic environmental assessment.
- Provided training for WCS, government officers, and other stakeholders on environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment, data collection and analysis, ethics, and conservation standards.
- Conducted public consultations to sensitize all relevant stakeholders to the ESMF, presenting the document and gathering feedback to ensure transparency, inclusivity, and stakeholder engagement in the project’s environmental and social safeguard processes.
Law enforcement and safeguarding
- Advanced risk assessment for security and human rights through an independent consultant.
- Organized workshops and capacity building for program staff on environmental and social safeguarding, including on human right based approach (HRBA) to conservation, illegal wildlife trade (investigation, prosecution, judicial aspects, and human rights protection) and livelihood activities.
- Developed a free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) protocol to engage with Indigenous People and local communities (IPLC).
Occupational health and safety
- Developed an internal security management plan (SMP).
- Created a guidebook on occupational health and safety (OHS) guidelines.
- First aid training in accidents and mountaineering provided by WCS and GLNP to reduce risk of work accidents for personnel involved in biodiversity monitoring.
- Coach ranger life saver (CRLS) course in collaboration with LEAD Ranger for government personnel from GLNP and BKSDA Aceh.
- A community health and safety plan integrated into the security management plan (SMP).
Gender equity
- Conducted a participatory narrative inquiry (PNI) training for WCS staff (14 women, 21 men) on gender issues and promoted a national-level session on women in conservation.
- Conducting a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) assessment to provide clear insights into how gender, environmental, social inclusion, and other relevant factors influence and guide project’s activities and strategies within the context of the Leuser Landscape.
Livelihood support
- As part of the socio-economic baseline, an economic situational analysis was conducted on cooperatives and community based organizations (CBOs)—including co-management groups, forest user groups, and herder cooperatives—to assess their capacity, operations, and development needs. This informs future collaboration and capacity-building strategies.
- Experience-sharing activities were facilitated among co-management groups and herder cooperatives in Binder soum, including those involved in value-added initiatives like beekeeping.
Livelihood support and community development
- Provided training on WCS’s basic necessities survey (BNS).
- Assisted 5 MDM (‘village self-reliant’ independent community /Masyarakat Desa Mandiri) communities in their self-reliance process: map resources for livelihood alternatives, develop collaboration proposals, and organization management capacity-building.
- 10 target villages were selected to advance safeguarding tools, namely ESMF, process framework for involuntary access restrictions (PF), stakeholder engagement plan (SEP), and village activity plans (VAPs).
- 16 target villages were selected for livestock vaccination and husbandry programs.
Biodiversity conservation and human-wildlife conflict
- Supported BKSDA and DLHK (Dinas Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan) Aceh build elephant and primate crossing on Sibanceh Highway.
- Supported BKSDA of North Sumatra in adopting tiger-proof enclosures (TPE) in collaboration with GLNP, assisting with the construction of 24 TPE to protect the livestock of local communities from potential tiger attacks.
Feedback and grievance redress mechanism
- Developed a draft program-level grievance redress mechanism, including the formation of a multi-stakeholder committee.
Indigenous People and cultural heritage
- Conducting integrated social, Indigenous People, and cultural heritage assessment to evaluate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, assess potential risks and impacts arising from project activities, and determine the presence and significance of cultural heritage within the project areas.