Indonesia: Yogyakarta’s wildlife rescue center facing survival crisis
Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
For several years, the Yogyakarta Wildlife Rescue Center (PPSJ) in Sendangsari village of Kulonprogo has been struggling to survive.
Workers have to put in extra hours while the center has to constantly seek more funds to avoid shutting down and leaving wild animals under its protection with nowhere to go.
The center is home to 400 animals and has 30 employees, meaning it has to come up with at least Rp 57 million (US$6,130) each month to supply food, animal treatments and employees’ salaries.
The center’s manager, Sugi Hartono, said the PPSJ had to become independent when the Gibbon Foundation stopped providing financial assistance in 2006 following the end of its cooperation with the Forestry Ministry, which administers the center.
The PPSJ was established in 2003 and takes up 14 hectares of land in the Menoreh mountain range in Kulon Progo regency, Yogyakarta.
The center is responsible for rehabilitating wild animals taken from their habitats by authorized government agencies and placed under the center’s care.
Since its founding back in 2003, the PPSJ has accommodated 54 different species. Of the 4,194 animals the center has looked after, 2,873 have been rehabilitated and released back to the wild. Among these animals are sea hawks, pig-snout tortoises, bondol hawks and orangutans.
Another 625 animals have been sent to zoos, wild animal parks and safari parks as part of their education and breeding programs.
Before being released to the wild, the confiscated animals need to be rehabilitated. It is not easy for wild animals like orangutans, bears, gibbons and birds to be returned to the forest after being kept as pets for so long.
Such rescue centers can only be found in Yogyakarta and Manado in North Sulawesi. The center in Yogyakarta has decided it cannot accept any additional animals because of limited funds.
Sugi said the center is like the last fortress of animal rescues, requiring dedication, idealism and a large amount of funding.
As far as the employees are concerned, loyalty and dedication is no problem. But the problem with funding has been quite difficult, Sugi said.
The delivery of the promised financial assistance from the Forestry Ministry does not arrive on time every month.
“It has been three months and we still haven’t received our salaries. This is not the first time. Fortunately, we can cover costs for the animal’s food from the earnings raised from a caf‚ and homestay.
“Without these earnings, we would have collapsed long ago, like similar centers in Bali, West Java and Malang (East Java),” Sugi said.
Since financial assistance from the Gibbon Foundation was cut, the center has had to think hard to find ways to raise money.
Four hectares of the PPSJ’s land is reserved for wildlife conservation and the remainder for a variety of outbound games.
The homestay facility was previously free of charge but now visitors have to pay.
The center has also decided to use its land for different programs, such as camping, outbound games, fish ponds and even cottages.
The center also hosts a student green program about replanting and introducing different wildlife species.
There, the students were taught how to feed animals, take care of them and release them back into their natural habitat.
However, Sugi said the center’s hard work to raise more money was not enough to ensure the center’s future and fresh commitment from the government was needed.
Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20080701.Q01&irec=0
