In Indonesia, women ranger teams go on patrol to slow deforestation

DAMARAN BARU, Indonesia (AP) — In a lush jungle at the foothills of a volcano in Indonesia’s Aceh province, the song of gibbons in the trees mixes with the laughter of the seven forest rangers trekking below them. An hour into their patrol, the rangers spot another mammal in the forest with them.

“Where are you going? What are you doing?” they pleasantly ask a man walking past, farming tools in hand. “Remember to not cut down trees wherever you go, OK?”

The friendly engagement is just one tactic the women-led forest ranger group has been using to safeguard the forest their village relies on from deforestation and poaching. After years of patrols have accompanied a sharp decrease in deforestation, the rangers are now sharing their strategies with other women-led groups striving to protect their forests across Indonesia.

A vast tropical archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is home to the world’s third-largest rainforest, with a variety of endangered wildlife and plants, including orangutans, elephants and giant forest flowers. Some live nowhere else.

Since 1950, more than 285,715 square miles (740,000 square kilometers) of Indonesian rainforest — an area twice the size of Germany — have been logged, burned or degraded for development of palm oil, paper and rubber plantations, nickel mining and other commodities, according to Global Forest Watch. In recent years deforestation has slowed, but continues.

In Damaran Baru, which borders one of the richest expanses of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia, many villagers rely on the forest for their livelihoods. Farmers harvest coffee from mountainside shrubs and the water flowing from the mountainside provides water for drinking and cooking in the village.

But