Rare bat found in oil palm plantation’s oasis

Nov. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- This first record of the Ridley’s leaf-nosed bat in Sumatra follows the publication of a paper in Conservation Letters that suggests retaining forest fragments within oil palm plantations is not an effective strategy for protecting wildlife.

Conservationists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Queen Mary, University of London and the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE – University of Kent) discovered the Ridley’s leaf-nosed bat in a 300ha fragment of forest during a biodiversity survey in West Sumatra, Indonesia.  http://www.zsl.org/conservation/carnivores-and-people/oil-palm-and-biodiversity-project,1180,AR.html

Amongst many other species found by the biodiversity survey were sunbear, tapir, agile gibbon and banded langur, all of which are also of conservation concern.

Sophie Persey, ZSL Biodiversity and Oil Palm Project Manager says, “Protecting large areas of connected forest will always be a priority for wildlife conservation, but if ambitious future plans for oil palm expansion are realised, conserving forest fragments within oil palm landscapes will also be important for maintaining Indonesia’s biodiversity.”  

To meet the Principles and Criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil relating to biodiversity, member palm oil producers have to identify High Conservation Values within their concession, or that could be affected by their operations, and then implement measures to maintain and enhance these values.

The area surveyed in Sumatra is currently managed as a conservation area by the palm oil company, limiting the impact of logging and encroachment on the forest fragment.

“The finding of this survey suggests that a network of forest fragments may be appropriate for some species of high conservation concern. The scientific community needs to continue to support the business community to find ways in which our threatened wildlife can persist in these managed areas over the long-term,” says Dr Matthew Struebig of Queen Mary, University of London and DICE, who led the survey.

The progress and future of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme will be discussed at the upcoming 8th Annual Roundtable Conference, starting on Monday 8 November in Jakarta, Indonesia.
ENDS

Editors’ notes

• The Conservation Letters paper referred to in the release: ‘Wildlife-friendly oil palm plantations fail to protect biodiversity effectively’ was published on March 5 2010

• Ridley’s leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros ridleyi) roosts in the cavities of trees (in hollows and cavities of standing trees, under fallen trees and logs) and is considered forest dependent. Radio-tracking studies of this species in Peninsular Malaysia revealed that its home range is limited to < 100 ha and did not extend beyond forest boundaries. Ridley’s leaf-nosed bat is listed at Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/search

• ZSL

Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity: our key role is the conservation of animals and their habitats.  The Society runs ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, carries out scientific research at the Institute of Zoology and is actively involved in field conservation overseas. For further information please visit: http://www.zsl.org

• Zoological Society of London’s Biodiversity & Oil Palm Project in Indonesia which is working to develop practical guidance and tools to assist palm oil producers to implement the RSPO P&C relating to biodiversity more effectively. For further information please visit our Biodiversity Information for Oil Palm website for more details http://www.oilpalm-biodiversity.info

Queen Mary, University of London

Queen Mary, University of London is one of the UK's leading research-focused higher education institutions with some 15,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London, Queen Mary’s 3,000 staff deliver world class degree programmes and research across 21 academic departments and institutes, within three sectors: Science and Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws; and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Ranked 11th in the UK according to the Guardian analysis of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, Queen Mary has been described as ‘the biggest star among the research-intensive institutions’ by the Times Higher Education and also won the 'Most Improved Student Experience' award for 2009, reflecting the superb academic and social experience offered to all students at the College. The College has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students coming from over 100 countries.

Queen Mary has an annual turnover of £220 million, research income worth £61 million, and generates employment and output worth £600 million to the UK economy each year. As a member of the 1994 Group of research-focused universities, Queen Mary has made a strategic commitment to the highest quality of research, but also to the best possible educational, cultural and social experience for its students.

The College is unique amongst London's universities in being able to offer a completely integrated residential campus, with a 2,000-bed award-winning Student Village on its Mile End campus.

Website: http://www.qmul.ac.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/QMUL

• The University of Kent
The University of Kent, the UK’s European university, was the first institution within the county to be granted a university charter. It has 19,000 students studying at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels and Paris. It is a major educational, economic and cultural force throughout Kent, supporting innovation and enterprise across the region.

The University has consistently been rated as one of the best universities in the UK according to the National Student Survey. The 2011 Guardian university guide saw Kent ranked 27 out of 118 universities and the Complete University Guide, published by The Independent, places Kent 38th, maintaining its position as a leading UK university, with 82 % of subjects taught being among the national top 30.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the University was placed 24th in the UK for its world-leading research out of 159 participating institutions, while 97% of its academic staff work in schools or centres where the research is rated as internationally or nationally excellent.
The University has a strong international impact, with long-standing partnerships with over 100 universities in mainland Europe and external networks with leading universities around the world. It is the only UK university with specialist postgraduate centres in Brussels and Paris.
In 2008, the University was awarded The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for the work of its Kent Law Clinic.

• You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.  You rely on this diversity of life to provide you with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials you simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all and weakens the ability of the living systems, on which we depend, to resist growing threats such as climate change.  2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This is vital for current and future human wellbeing. We need to do more. Now is the time to act.

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Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity: our key role is the conservation of animals and their habitats. For further information please visit http://www.zsl.org