Leuser Ecosystem

Since 2005, ExxonMobil has provided $750,000 to support Leuser International Foundation's (LIF) conservation activities of the Leuser Ecosystem. These activities include environmental education, training of conservation officers, development of conservation-friendly livelihoods for the communities that have traditionally relied upon the ecosystem’s resources and direct forest rehabilitation.

The Leuser Ecosystem is one of the globe’s biodiversity hotspots, containing some of the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on the planet. In northern Sumatra, Indonesia, Leuser Ecosystem covers some 27,000 square kilometers and is the only place on earth where elephants, rhinos, tigers, clouded leopards, and orangutans live together. Leuser is as diverse in its landscape as it is in animal species, featuring mountain ranges, volcanoes, rift valleys, large peat swamps, alpine meadows and lowland forests.

The first official statement of intent to protect the Leuser Ecosystem was signed in 1934. The Leuser International Foundation (a nonprofit, non-governmental organization) was established in the late 1990s when the ecosystem was seriously under threat from illegal logging and wildlife poaching. The LIF has a conservation concession over the ecosystem for 30 years giving it managerial responsibility for activities within the Leuser Ecosystem.

Geographically, the Leuser Ecosystem lies between 3 - 4.5° North and 96.5 - 98° East. It covers approximately 2.6 million hectares of tropical rain forest, encompassing 890,000 hectares of designated national park, as well as extensive areas of protection and production forests in northern Sumatra. The Ecosystem contains two major volcanoes, three lakes, and nine major river systems that flow to the east and west coasts of the island.

The Leuser Ecosystem has an enormous level of biodiversity. It contains at least 127 mammal species, including the Sumatran elephant, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhinoceros, and Sumatran orangutan. About 8,500 different plant species grow in the beach, swamp, lowland, mountain and alpine ecosystems of the Leuser Ecosystem. Of the 10,000 plant species recorded in the West Indo-Malayan Region, 45 percent are found in the Leuser Ecosystem. Spectacular plants such as Rafflesia (the largest flower in the world) and Amorphophallus (the tallest flower in the world) are among the plants protected there.

ExxonMobil is proud to support the conservation of this unique biodiversity hotspot.