Sumatran Rescue Alliance, a wildlife rescue center built by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry along with partners, was inaugurated in Langkat District, North Sumatra, on Wednesday.

The construction of the facility had started in 2020. Besides it, North Sumatra has three other wildlife rescue centers: Mbatubelin Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, Barumun Sumatran Tiger Rehabilitation Center, and Sibolangit Wildlife Rescue Center.

In a press statement issued here on Thursday, Vice Minister of Environment and Forestry, Alue Dohong, said that the construction of the wildlife rescue center was part of an effort to fulfill the obligation to protect nature.

Humans are obliged to protect and live side-by-side with nature because if the ecosystem is disrupted, it could potentially lead to human-animal conflict, he said.

“The forest was not created by God only for humans, but it was also made for God’s other creations,” Dohong affirmed.

The North Sumatra Natural Resources Conservation Center, Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Center, Orangutan Information Center (OIC), and Orangutan Project formed the Sumatran Rescue Alliance in 2020, he noted.

The Sumatran Rescue Alliance facility in Bukit Mas Village, Besitang Sub-district, Langkat District,  was opened by Dohong on Wednesday.

Sumatran Rescue Alliance official Panut Hadisiswoyo said that the center, along with the Natural Resources Conservation Center, will conduct wildlife rescue efforts.

The animal rescue effort will comprise sheltering, rehabilitation, and habituation of animals for reintroducing them back to the wild, he added.

Animals that the wildlife rescue center has managed to rescue include four agile gibbons (Hylobates agilis), one lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), fourteen siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus), two orangutans (Pongo abelii), and three sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), he said.

Source: Antara News