In Sumatra, it has been protecting slow lorises and other endangered species for 10 years!

A decade has passed since the Czech-Indonesian Kukang Rescue Program on the island of Sumatra decided to dedicate immense effort to protecting slow lorises, pangolins, and other endangered animals. During this time, they began focusing on education and involving local people in animal protection, building an international team of conservationists, monitoring wild animal populations, tracking and uncovering networks of endangered species traffickers, and cooperating with authorities on animal confiscations. This initiative, which has given (not only) endangered slow lorises more optimistic prospects for a better future, is commemorating this year everything that has been achieved over 10 years in an effort to change at least a small piece of the world for the better.

Zoologists and conservationists from the Kukang team have been working since 2014 to protect primarily the endangered greater slow loris (Nycticebus coucang) and Sumatran slow loris (Nycticebus hilleri) – primates who, despite being the only venomous primates in the world, become victims of their cuteness due to poaching for the pet trade. The Czechs established The Kukang Rescue Program initiative in Indonesia with the main goal of fighting against illegal wildlife trade. “Indonesia is undergoing rapid development, which is good on one hand, but very few financial and human resources are invested in nature conservation here. There is almost no environmental education in the country, nature protection laws are poorly enforced, animals are treated mainly as commodities for profit, and the human population continues to grow very rapidly. All this causes rapid decline in local animal species. And although Indonesia and its island of Sumatra is one of the world’s hotspots for illegal animal trade, until our program was established in 2014, there was no specialized non-profit organization focused on slow loris protection on Sumatra. Unfortunately, there are many more species on the margins of interest,” describes František Příbrský, founder and director of the Kukang Rescue Program, explaining the motivation for starting conservation work in Indonesia.

Over its 10 years of operation, Kukang has come a long way, continuously developing primarily through cooperation with local communities. Since 2015, Kukang members have been teaching English and natural science, animals, and their protection free of charge to children from the Bandar Baru village community at the “Kukang School” English-environmental school. Additionally, Kukang responded to a request from the Basukum village community and in 2021 helped them build their own English-environmental school for children, called “School at the End of the World,” modeled after Kukang School, which they now help operate. In 2015, this was followed by the construction of the “Kukang Center” for slow lorises in Bandar Baru village, which serves as the program’s base and also as a specialized center for rehabilitating slow lorises confiscated from illegal trade with the aim of returning them to the wild. However, slow loris rehabilitation is currently not in operation.

Since 2016, the Program has employed former slow loris and pangolin poachers, who were formed into a field team of nature conservationists. “Former poachers Kaban and Wahyudi were able to catch dozens of slow lorises each month, as well as many other animal species. However, hunting was uncertain, not very profitable, and they didn’t enjoy it. When they found out they could hang up poaching and instead protect these animals, they were happy about it. Before they became legitimate team members though, we tested their abilities and also checked if they had really stopped poaching. That was 8 years ago,” recalls Lucie Čižmářová, co-founder and coordinator of veterinary care and welfare in the Kukang Program. Thanks to this, they subsequently managed to eliminate most of the hunting of endangered and protected animal species in one of the buffer zone areas in the southeast of the unique Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra.

An exceptionally important milestone for the Kukang Rescue Program and for the absolute elimination of hunting in the mentioned buffer zone area in the southeast of Gunung Leuser National Park was the creation of the “Kukang Coffee” project in 2018. As part of this, the Kukang Program established the “Kukang Coffee” community of coffee farmers who observe the ban on hunting protected animal species and in return, Kukang buys coffee from them at an advantageous price. “Thanks to the established coffee community, local people have higher profits from their coffee and at the same time higher motivation and understanding for protecting local endangered animal species. These farmers, who previously also occasionally hunted protected species, have thus become conservationists. The project works excellently, and our area has become a small paradise for these animals,” explains Jhon Kartasima Gurusinga, the Indonesian coordinator of the Kukang Coffee project. People in the Czech Republic can also enjoy the quality, conservation coffee “Kukang Coffee”. Coffee from this area is imported to the Czech Republic, specifically to the Kukang Coffee café in Ústí nad Labem, which spreads this conservation story among the general public. It is also offered at some stands by Zoo Ústí nad Labem, Zoo Ostrava, Zoo Olomouc, Zoo Na Hrádečku, and is purchased by cafés Soumar Coffee in Pilsen, Buliro Club in Prague, Studio Harcovka in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, with others gradually joining.

A very important part of Kukang Program’s complex activities is regular monitoring of nocturnal wild animals, which has been conducted since 2019 according to a clear methodology, making it possible to estimate slow loris population sizes in the defined territory and their fluctuations in locations around the villages of Kuta Male, Bandar Baru, and Basukum. “We learned to track animals and collect comprehensive data that then helps us protect these animals. In one evening, we are sometimes able to find up to ten slow lorises, often in the vicinity of the village or directly in it. It is therefore evident that after ending our hunting activities, animals feel safe here, return here, and even raise their young here,” specifies Kaban, a former slow loris hunter, now a field assistant of the program operating in the Kuta Male location. A complementary monitoring method that Kukang Program field workers have been using since last year is camera traps. “Some animals, such as the Sumatran tiger or the Asiatic golden cat, we have never managed to see with our own eyes. Seeing them at least in camera trap footage is something amazing. We are glad that these and other creatures still live in our forests. It shows us that there is still something to protect and fight for,” says Wahyudi, a former pangolin hunter and current field assistant of the Kukang Program.

Since 2022, Kukang has also been actively fighting against smugglers with the help of wildlife trade investigators, aiming to punish them and confiscate smuggled animals or their parts. They collaborate on this with, among others, Ofir Drori, an Israeli conservationist and founder of the EAGLE network international organization, which is extensively dedicated to fighting against illegal animal trade in Africa. One of the significant successes was the arrest of a major smuggler of pangolins, primates, reptiles, and other animals nicknamed Greed, whom the international team led by Czech conservationists in Sumatra managed to catch after four months of intensive investigation and evidence gathering. “I am very glad for this action in Sumatra. This is exactly what is needed. Less talk and more traffickers behind bars. The arrest of this smuggler in Indonesia is really very beneficial because ports in Southeast Asia form a large part of illegal wildlife trade. Moreover, every arrest of a wildlife smuggler sends a message to other criminals. I hope that this action will therefore have a far-reaching impact,” said Ofir Drori. This was followed by other captures – smugglers Iqbal, Katon, Mr. A, and others trading in more than a thousand Yellow-crested Cockatoos and songbirds, including Nias Hill Mynas, cockatoos, and birds of paradise. They also managed to confiscate several illegally held siamangs and gibbons, a pangolin, slow loris, and binturong, and the Kukang team assisted in detaining many other rare animals. Work on investigating illegal wildlife trade or possession continues.

As an authentic showcase of the Kukang Rescue Program’s activities, the film “Kukang Movie: A Story About Slow Lorises and People” was completed last year, a time-lapse documentary from the perspective of two documentarians who decided to capture the real story of nature conservation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a noticeable Czech footprint. This year, this film will be available on Czech Television, iVysílání, and on the newly emerging website of the documentary.

All activities of the Kukang Rescue Program are possible primarily thanks to the long-term support of modern zoological gardens, which have been the Program’s main partners since its beginning. These include Zoo Ostrava, Zoo Olomouc, Zoo Liberec, Zoo Hodonín, Zoo Na Hrádečku, Zoo Ústí nad Labem, Zoo Zlín, Polish Wroclaw Zoo, Dutch Ouwehands Zoo, and German NaturZoo Rheine. However, the German foundation Welttierschutzgesellschaft e.V. (WTG) is also a crucial partner and sponsor.