Dakota Reflections
Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country in the world with over 255 million people in 17,000 islands, 6000 of which are inhabited. Located near the Pacific, Eurasian and Australian tetonic plates, Indonesia is home to some of the most significant volcanic eruptions in human history: Krakatoa, erupted in 1883 and Tambora, erupted in 1815.
Of the five species of rhinos in the world, the two most endangered are the Sumatran rhino with approximately 100 left and the Javan rhino with approximately 40 left. The Javan Rhinos are concentrated in Ujung Kulon National Park in Java, Indonesia where they are relatively protected from poaching due to the presence of Rhino Protection Units (RPUs). They are, however, critically endangered and under threat of extinction. They are rarely seen or photographed unless camera traps are used.
Sumatran rhinos are also critically endangered with only 100 left in the world. They are scattered in three national parks in Indonesia; Gunung Leuser, Way Kambas, and Bukit Barisan Selatan and one area in Borneo.
The Sumatran rhino became extinct in Vietnam in 2010 and became extinct in the wild in Malaysia in 2015. They are critically endangered and under threat of extinction.
The Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) is located in Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra. Andalas, a male born at the Cincinatti Zoo in 2001 and moved to Indonesia in 2007, is there along with his son Andatu, born at the SRS on June 23, 2012. Three females are there as well: Ratu, mother of Andatu; Rosa and Bina. Dr. Terri Roth of the Cincinatti Zoo has provided key support to the dedicated veterinarians and keppers at the SRS. The Rhino Foundation of Indonesia (YABI), headed by Widodo Ramono, and the International Rhino Foundation, headed by Dr. Susie Ellis, and staffed by Sectionov Inov in Jakarta have collaborated for many years resulting in the cessation of rhino poaching in Indonesia and establishment of the successful SRS.
We were fortunate to visit Indonesia in 2012 and I was fortunate to return in 2013. When we visited the SRS in 2012, we were among the first non-Indonesians to see Andatu who was 1 month of age at the time. We also sailed on a 60-foot ketch "Cecilia Ann" to Anak Krakatau where I climbed halfway up to see sulfur deposits among the volcanic rock.
Indonesia and Singapore
Andatu at 1 month of age- born June 23, 2012
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Andatu at 1 month of age- born June 23, 2012
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Andatu at 1 month of age- born June 23, 2012
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Ratu nursing Andatu
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 27, 2012
Andatu- 9 1/2 months of age
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Andatu- 9 1/2 months of age
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Rhino Protection Unit
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 25, 2012
Rhino Protection Unit
Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 31, 2012
Entrance
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 25, 2012
Rhino Protection Unit
Ujung Kulon National Park
Java, Indonesia
July 31, 2012
Rhino Protection Unit
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
National Museum
Jakarta
Java, Indonesia
July 29, 2012
Anak Krakatau
Sundra Strait
Indonesia
August 1, 2012
Wild Boar
Ujung Kulon National Park
Java, Indonesia
July 31, 2012
Javan Rusa
Ujung Kulon National Park
Java, Indonesia
July 31, 2012
Orchid
National Orchid Garden
Singapore
March 31, 2013
Yellow Bittern
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore
March 29, 2013
Pearly-banded Bees
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore
March 29, 2013
Purple Heron
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Sea Eagle
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Orchid
National Orchid Garden
Singapore
March 31, 2013
Orchid
National Orchid Garden
Singapore
March 31, 2013
Black and Red Broadbill
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Banded Kingfisher
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 5, 2013
Rosa
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 27, 2012
Ratu
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Andatu
1-month-old
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Ratu
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
April 6, 2013
Andatu
1-month-old
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Andatu
1-month-old
Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, Way Kambas National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
July 26, 2012
Widodo Ramono present Certificate of Appreciation to Stephen McDonough
Ujung Kulon National Park
Java, Indonesia
July 31 2012
REMEMBERING WIDODO RAMONO
Widodo Ramono, executive director of Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI) also known as the Rhino Foundation of Indonesia, passed away on December 24, 2020 after a short illness. Few people have dedicated more years to the study and conservation of Asian
rhinos.
“We are heartbroken by the passing of Widodo Ramono,” said Nina Fascione, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation (IRF). “Pak Widodo spent more than five decades fighting to protect Indonesian wildlife, particularly Sumatran and Javan rhinos. We have lost a dear friend and the world has lost a great champion for rhinos.”
Widodo has served as YABI’s executive director since 2009, stewarding the organization’s role in the protection of Indonesia’s rhinos. YABI, which marks its 14th anniversary on Dec. 28, is IRF’s principal partner in programs that are helping to ensure the survival of both Sumatran and Javan rhinos.
“Whenever we were in the field Pak Widodo would change from his suit to his field clothes and wear a goofy looking hat and just smile,” remembered John Lukas, President of the IRF Board of Directors. “When in the forest, among the rhinos, he was the happiest.”
On April 4, 1945, Widodo was born in the Central Javan city of Blora. He studied nature conservation at the Senior High School of Forestry in Bogor and later traveled internationally to receive technical training in forestry operations, national park administration, wildlife management, environmental impact assessment, conservation biology and public sector leadership.
Since 1969, he has held a variety of civil servant positions in wildlife conservation, notable among them being the head of Nature Protection and Conservation of Ujung Kulon National Park, which now holds the only population of Javan rhinos – numbering 74 individuals.
Widodo’s lengthy career has also included the management of Asian elephant populations in southern Sumatra, and development of three Indonesian national parks (Bukit Barisan Selatan, Kerinci Seblat and Way Kambas). After completing his study on State Administration in Lampung, he was appointed forestry operations management chief in Aceh Province. And, as the former Director of Biodiversity Conservation for the Ministry of Forestry, he played a major role in establishing management practices for Indonesia’s national parks, nature and game reserves, recreation forests, and wetlands. Widodo worked for The Nature Conservancy – Indonesia Programs after completing his work for the Government of Indonesia.
In 2015, Widodo was awarded the Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit by the Species Survival Commission of IUCN in recognition of his lifetime’s work to save the Javan and Sumatran Rhinos from extinction. He also was a leading voice in the Sumatran Rhino Survival Alliance, established by the Indonesia government and global and local organizations to save the critically endangered species.
Widodo is survived by his wife and three grown children. He was 75.
“In this time of grieving, IRF stands with the YABI family to continue our shared responsibilities to secure the future of Sumatran and Javan Rhinos in Indonesia, a legacy Pak Widodo left to us,” said Lukas. “The International Rhino Foundation sends our heartfelt condolences to his family and colleagues around the world.”
https://rhinos.org/blog/remembering-widodo-ramono/
Widodo Ramono, the man on a mission to save Sumatran rhinos
by Rahmadi Rahmad on 17 December 2020 | Translated by Basten Gokkon
- Indonesian biologist Widodo Ramono has dedicated a lifetime to conserving the country’s Sumatran rhinos from extinction.
- A former government official, Widodo now leads a rhino conservation group that oversees a captive-breeding program at a sanctuary for Sumatran rhinos.
- To save the species, found only in Indonesia, Widodo says protecting its habitats from deforestation and poaching is the most important thing.
- Mongabay Indonesia recently spoke with Widodo about the country’s plans for rhinos and the challenges those plans face.
Editor’s note: Widodo died of COVID-19 on December 24, 2020.
BOGOR, Indonesia — Indonesian biologist Widodo Sukohadi Ramono is one of the longest-standing and most influential figures in the country’s efforts to conserve the Sumatran rhino, a critically endangered species with a population now believed to be no more than 80.
Widodo’s love for wildlife and the environment began in middle school in the late 1950s, when he joined a scout troop in his hometown of Blora, Central Java. He went on to study forestry at a vocational school in Bogor, West Java, and after graduating joined the Ujung Kulon National Park agency as a forest ranger.
In the early 1980s, Widodo was tasked to head the local conservation agency in Sumatra’s Lampung province. That included overseeing Way Kambas National Park, home to the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). That’s when Widodo’s career as a government official kicked off. Over the years, he headed key posts, including as the director for biodiversity conservation at the environment ministry, until his retirement in 2005.
When Widodo was starting out in the 1980s, the Sumatran rhino population was estimated at around 800. That figure had halved by 1986, and dropped again to 275 by 2008. Much of the population decrease was likely due to revisions of overly optimistic estimates, but these decades were also marked by the inexorable and actual decline of the species.
Since 2009, Widodo has headed the Indonesian Rhino Foundation (YABI). His contribution to the conservation of Indonesia’s rich wildlife, especially its two rhino species, is acknowledged globally by the IUCN, the Golden Ark Foundation, and at home by the Indonesian government.
Mongabay Indonesia recently spoke with Widodo about the country’s plans for rhinos and the challenges those plans face.
Few births in captivity
Two rhinos have been born at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary (SRS) in Way Kambas National Park, marking a major success for Indonesia’s captive-breeding efforts. But both calves were born to the same pair of parents, and none have been born since May 2016.
Breeding rhinos is difficult and there’s much about it that still remains a mystery to experts, Widodo says.
“It must be understood that the space between rhino births is around four to five years,” he says. “Such a slow rate of productivity should be of everyone’s concern.”
Widodo says the main goal for the captive-breeding program at Way Kambas is to capture isolated wild rhinos in the hopes of producing as many calves as possible at the facility. The program’s recent expansion is aimed at bringing in more rhinos from so-called “doomed” populations — those that are no longer viable for survival if left in the wild — to boost the success rate of the captive-breeding program.
There is some controversy at the international level about whether it makes sense to continue focusing on doomed rhinos, rather than capturing females from wild populations that are still breeding. Rescuing female rhinos from the wild to join the captive-breeding program may reduce the chances of them developing reproductive problems in the wild, which can happen when they don’t meet a male rhino in a long time — an increasingly common problem as the animals’ habitat is fragmented and they are cut off from each other.
On the other hand, experts have also observed reproductive problems in female rhinos that were freshly captured from doomed populations.
“We must act quickly as there are still female rhinos out there that can bear offspring,” Widodo says.
Keeping rhinos safe in Indonesia
Many experts, particularly in Indonesia, have advocated for keeping captive rhinos inside the country, in an environment as close as possible to their natural habitat, due to high mortality rates and low births among rhinos captured for previous breeding efforts abroad.
The seven captive Sumatran rhinos now live in a semi-wild environment at the Way Kambas sanctuary, which was built in 1996 and has been under YABI’s oversight. Previous attempts at conserving the rhinos off-site mostly failed. Only one foreign zoo, Cincinnati, achieved successful births: three calves, two of whom are now at Way Kambas.
“Evidently, we can do it. Two rhino babies have been born in Way Kambas SRS,” Widodo said.
Indonesia has another SRS facility, at Kelian Lestari in the Bornean province of East Kalimantan. It’s home to a solitary female named Pahu, captured there in 2018. Another female, called Pari, is planned to be captured and placed there too. Scientists believe there are no more than 16 Sumatran rhinos left in Indonesian Borneo, inhabiting three known sites.
The government is building another SRS in Aceh province at the northern tip of Sumatra. The planned sanctuary will cover 100 hectares (250 acres) of an ecosystem that is believed to still record natural births of Sumatran rhinos in the wild.
“We must produce as many rhino babies as possible within a safe environment, considering the threat of extinction is right before our eyes,” Widodo says.
Challenges
Indonesia is the last refuge for the Sumatran rhino. The species’ population was historically decimated by poaching and habitat loss, but the main threat today is the low birth rate as a result of habitat fragmentation, which means individual males and females in the wild are less likely to encounter each other.
In 2017, the Indonesian government developed an emergency action plan for Sumatran rhinos, which includes increasing protection of rhino habitats, surveying the remaining wild population, and capturing those individuals with reproductive potential and moving them to captive-breeding and research facilities such as Way Kambas and Kelian.
“Population decline obviously is happening; it’s a race against time,” Widodo says, adding it’s urgent that every stakeholder follow the government’s plans.
“Conservation areas for the lives of Sumatran rhinos and other wildlife must be defended and managed,” he says.
The looming extinction of the Sumatran rhino — a species that once ranged from the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in Bhutan and eastern India, through Myanmar, Thailand, and south through the Malay Peninsula — would mean a colossal loss for Indonesia and the rest of the world, Widodo says.
The Sumatran rhino is the smallest and hairiest rhino species. It is the last survivor of its ancient lineage, belonging to the genus Dicerorhinus and believed to be the only living relative of the long-extinct woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis). It’s also a key ecosystem engineering, spreading seeds and pruning vegetation as it forages for food.
“For the rhinos, the most important thing to do has always been protecting and managing their habitats,” Widodo says. “Otherwise, the rhinos won’t survive.”
This story was first reported by Mongabay’s Indonesia team and published here on our Indonesian site on Oct. 10, 2020.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/widodo-ramono-the-man-on-a-mission-to-save-sumatran-rhinos/
Obituary For CTC’s Board Member Bapak Widodo Ramono
We are deeply saddened by the news that CTC’s board member Bapak Widodo Ramono passed away at the hospital in Bogor on 24th December 2020 due to complications from COVID-19. Our deepest sympathy to his wife Ibu Turnia and children Hesti, Dewi and Elfan. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time.
Pak Widodo leaves an impressive conservation legacy behind with 41 years of service in the Forestry Department, 4 years in TNC and his remaining years until now in the Rhino Foundation. He put his heart and soul into conservation. His knowledge, commitment and passion for conservation, and his calmness under all circumstances was an inspiration for us all. His support to CTC since our establishment in 2010 until today is greatly appreciated. Pak Widodo shared his extensive field experience with all of us and wholeheartedly supported our approach in turning knowledge into on-the-ground action.
Pak Wid received several international awards for his relentless efforts for conservation and particularly for his work on rhinos in Ujung Kulon and Way Kambas National Park. He has been instrumental in advancing conservation in Indonesia as Director for Species Conservation and National Parks of the Forestry department, Policy Director in TNC, Board Member at CTC, and as Executive Director of Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI) supported by the International Rhino Foundation.
Pak Widodo will be sorely missed but fondly remembered as one of the most dedicated conservation leaders of Indonesia.
https://www.coraltrianglecenter.org/2020/12/25/obituary-for-ctcs-board-member-bapak-widodo-ramono/