Illegal Gold Mining Damages Sumatran Orangutan Release Site

Walhi Aceh says miners have damaged about 14 hectares of the Jantho Nature Reserve, where nearly 200 rescued Sumatran orangutans have been released since 2011.

Illegal gold miners have cut into the Jantho Nature Reserve in Indonesia's Aceh province, a forest on the northern tip of Sumatra where rescued Sumatran orangutans are returned to the wild, Mongabay reported on August 31, 2026. An analysis by Walhi Aceh, the provincial branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, the country's largest environmental pressure group, found that about 14 hectares (35 acres), roughly 20 football pitches, were damaged between 2023 and May 2026.

Afifuddin, Walhi Aceh's campaign and advocacy lead, said its monitoring suggested dozens of excavators may have been working in the reserve. Community sources told Mongabay the miners probably entered from the Tangse area of Pidie district, east of Jantho.

A release site with births in the wild

The Indonesian government created the Jantho reintroduction area more than 15 years ago and works there with the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). Nearly 200 orangutans have been released since 2011. The site was picked for its fig trees, a main orangutan food, and for its closeness to the Leuser Ecosystem, which holds most of the Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. Siamang gibbons, sun bears and dozens of rare bird species also live there.

On May 22, 2026, fieldworkers confirmed that Bulan, a female rescued from wildlife traffickers and released seven years earlier, had given birth to a male infant in Jantho. Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antony named him Badar. Mongabay's two reports count the birth differently: one calls it the 11th live birth recorded by the program, while the other quotes SOCP spokesperson Castri Delfi Saragih calling it the 10th confirmed birth at the release area. Sumatran orangutans usually have one young every nine years, the longest gap between births of any ape.

The species is critically endangered. The IUCN's 2017 assessment estimated 13,846 Sumatran orangutans in the wild and warned of a fall of more than 80 percent over three generations if the decline seen since 1985 continued. A newer study in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, cited by Mongabay, puts the number at 11,694, down 19.5 percent from 2011 to 2023.

Rivers and the local response

Residents fear lasting pollution in the upper Krueng Aceh basin, which communities rely on for clean water, irrigation and fishing. Darwin, Jantho's imum mukim, or traditional community leader, said pollution has made fishing harder and caused problems for households that drink river water. Thirteen villages agreed at a meeting to reject all illegal mining, and the Jantho Bergerak Alliance, a coalition of local activist groups, has urged the government to stop it immediately.

The community reported the mining to the Aceh Besar district police and the provincial conservation agency, BKSDA, in April. From June 16 to 20, police, BKSDA staff, forestry ministry law enforcement officers and residents inspected suspected sites. They found no heavy equipment inside the reserve, but they put up warning signs, razed a miners' camp and destroyed some light equipment. BKSDA head Ujang Wisnu Barata said the damage is spread across three nearby sites. “Monitoring of conservation areas will continue to be tightened,” he said, adding that this would come through routine patrols and coordination with police and local governments.

The incursion comes during a global rush for gold. The price rose from about $1,928 an ounce in early 2023 to more than $4,600 in May 2026, as investors sought protection from inflation and geopolitical instability. In West Sumatra, Walhi's provincial branch has recorded 48 deaths of miners over the past 15 years.

Sumatra's rainforests, including the Leuser Ecosystem, are covered in our guide to Indonesia beyond Bali and our guide to sustainable jungle travel.