Female Rangers don’t ‘go as alpha as the men’ to protect a forest

Riding her motorbike while balancing a backpack, a wok and a sharp cleaver, Asmia expertly maneuvered her way up a dangerous cliff: a five-kilometre trek up a steep dirt path, barely 120 centimeters wide, around the mouth of to reach the forest.

Asmia is one of fifteen members of a team of rangers – ten of whom are women – tasked with protecting their village forest in Indonesia’s Aceh province from squatters who want to cut down the trees for timber or cultivate the fertile soil.

“Here we once fought with a squatter and asked him to stop the encroachment,” Asmia said, pointing as she walked under the thick canopy of trees that shaded her rounds. “He insisted on clearing the land because he wanted to grow coffee. He was persistent. But we talked him out of it.”

Dressed in headscarves, green uniforms and rubber boots, Asmia and the team’s other female rangers ventured deeper into the tropical rainforest they are tasked with monitoring, part of the Leuser ecosystem on the island of Sumatra.

The rangers’ laughter was accompanied by the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects as they patrolled, observing trees and moss as they searched for signs of prohibited human activity. As much as the park rangers enjoy their job, they have to be careful, and not just because of the squatters.

Leuser’s 6.5 million hectare ecosystem is home to orangutans and many other primates, elephants, rhinos and tigers. Although many of these animals are not found in this part of the forest, there are sun bears, which, although small and generally timid, can be fierce when surprised or protecting their cubs.

“There are new bear crabs!” one of the rangers, Rezeki Amalia, or Lia, shouted to her friends as she examined a tree trunk. Other rangers immediately gathered around the tree and began measuring the size of the legs, taking photos of the scratches and filling out their patrol forms while marking their GPS with the tree’s location.

The rangers’ field reports are eagerly awaited by researchers monitoring the Leuser Ecosystem, one of the least studied tropical forests in the world.

Asmia’s village, Damaran Baru, is located at the foot of the Burni Telong volcano. Surrounded by strong streams and steep slopes, the area was naturally vulnerable to landslides and flooding, but the risk increased after squatters deforested parts of the area.

The full extent of the danger became clear in 2015, when a flash flood destroyed more than a dozen homes and inundated dozens of hectares of farmland in Damaran Baru and neighboring villages. Although no one was killed, hundreds of villagers were evacuated to refugee camps.

“My house was just a few meters away from the path where the water flowed,” says Asmia, who, like many Indonesians, uses one name. In the refugee camp, “it was miserable,” she said. “We have no water there. How could we live without water? If we don’t have water, how can we work in the kitchen, wash our children, water our fields?”

Tired of living in fear that the devastating floods would reoccur, the women of Damaran Baru decided it was time to take a more active role in protecting their environment.

However, in Indonesia, where patriarchal culture is deeply rooted, women’s roles are usually diminished and women are often overlooked in many areas of work. Being a forest ranger is considered a man’s job and therefore taboo for women in Aceh, where Islam is the dominant religion and the only Indonesian province to have implemented Sharia law.

“Although women are usually the ones who feel the direct impact of environmental loss and climate change, there was a lot of resistance when we put forward the idea of ​​creating a female ranger team,” said Rubama, a community conservation officer. for the Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh Foundation, which funds the ranger initiative. “Women are often excluded and not allowed to fulfill many roles in Aceh, especially at the village level.”

Although it took months of discussion, village leaders were eventually convinced to allow the women to become rangers. A name was chosen for the initiative: Mpu Euteun, or someone who takes care of the forest.

“I come from a neighboring village. I came here as a ranger because it is important to protect mother nature,” says Nuriana. “I now see trees and plants that I only heard my parents talk about – and also relearn local wisdom and natural remedies.”

With the help of the Aceh Forest, Nature and Environment Foundation, the village rangers have submitted an application to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for a so-called Village Forest Permit.

In November 2019, the village obtained the permit, which officially gave the village the authority to manage and protect 620 hectares of forest around Damaran Baru. Without the permit, the villagers could only ask those entering the forest to leave. Now they can insist that offenders leave and seek government help if they don’t. (The rangers are unarmed and cannot make arrests.)

In January 2020, Mpu Euteun made his debut. Two teams, each now consisting of five women and two men, go on forest patrols for five days every month.

“We have the men and women working together as a team to show that women do not compete or take on the role of men. Instead, they can work together,” Rubama explains.

Since rangers started patrolling almost four years ago, the number of incidents in which they encounter squatters has decreased, they say.

When they encounter people encroaching on the forest – whether farmers or loggers – it is the female rangers who are the first to intervene and try to de-escalate the situation.

“Every time we come face to face with robbers, the men will tell us to take the lead and talk to them,” Asmia said.

The offenders often come from the area and are known to at least some rangers. Instead of confronting them, the female rangers ask the intruders to sit with them and start a conversation.

“When we meet them, we start with a chat while offering some snacks and coffee,” says Lia. “We don’t go all alpha like the men, so the situation never gets worse.”

For a five-day patrol, each ranger receives just over $38, a significant addition to the family income. For the women, patrolling the wilderness is also a great escape from their often mundane lives.

“We release our burden when we are here,” Asmia said. “By sharing our stories and laughing, we forget the problems at home. This also increases our self-confidence that – whoaa! – apparently we could all do it too.

The teams usually return home at dusk, but sometimes they also camp.

Asmia’s patrol would spend the night as plans for the next day included checking the upstream condition of the Wih Gile River: the timber clogging the waterway would be removed and trees would be planted, including those with passion fruit , avocado, durian and guava. .

The jokes and giggles heard around the campsite were interspersed with the sounds of crickets as tents were pitched and a fire was lit.

“My wife really enjoys her role as a ranger,” says Darmawan, Lia’s husband. “So if she has to spend the night in the woods, and it’s not the same schedule for me, that’s fine with me,” he said, although he added that he did worry about her getting hurt during the patrol.

Despite the hard work and even occasional online bullying, the female rangers say they are proud and committed to their efforts.

“If not us, then who? Let them talk,” Lia said. “We will remain strong.” She added: “You really have to love Mother Nature to commit to this.”