The Indonesian government has promised to repair the damage done to the Tesso National Park. The park still has a population of Sumatran elephants and Sumatran tigers and as such is a highly important reserve that must remain. However much work is to be done as 75% of the park has been deforested and large parts of this has been replaced with palm oil plants. Large numbers of local people have also decided to settle in the park and have on several occasions attacked people who have come to try to sort the park out, despite knowing that where they are living is illegal.
Deforestation often brings wild animals into direct conflict with local people and more than 55 elephants have been killed by local people in these clashes since 2012, leaving a population thought to be between 150 and 200 animals. Local businessmen and politicians helped move people into the park after it was designated but before its protection came into place, and there are 58 palm oil companies in the area that are happy to take fruit from plantations within the park and not worry too much about their providence. It is an open secret that these companies know where the palm oil fruits come from as they will not accept them during the day but happily take them at night.
There are plans on this occasion to make sure that during the process of moving the population back out of the park that the bosses, the people who have made the actual money from these tiny plantations and the actual owners do end up on this occasion in being punished severely. The 58 palm oil companies will not get away with this either, some of them will be bought by the government panel company but the rest will simply have their permits revoked and therefore being incapable of continuing in business.
This park was one of the few remaining jewels in the crown of the Indonesian national park system and it is hoped that if the current president of Indonesia is voted back in in the elections coming soon that he will be able to continue this process of rejuvenating it.
