Since last year, authorities have arrested six suspected poachers. But eight are still on the run, including one who managed to flee his home hours before police arrived.
The fugitive reportedly had recent records of rhinos in Java’s Ujung Kulon National Park, the only place in the world where the species is still found, raising fears he had inside help.
The poachers claim that two gangs have killed 26 rhinos since 2018 – between a third and a quarter of the species’ estimated population.
“It’s a huge number,” said Nina Fascione, director of the International Rhino Foundation, adding that she was “shocked and devastated.”
The suspects reportedly said they killed the rhinos for their horns, which fetch huge sums from black market buyers in China.
Although horns are made of keratin – the same substance found in hair and nails – they are valued for medicinal purposes.
Indonesian police have arrested a collector who bought rhino horns from the gang for 500 million rupiah ($30,500).
An armed police officer guards suspected poachers arrested for their alleged involvement in the hunting of Javan rhinos during a press conference at police headquarters in Banten province, Java, Indonesia, on June 11. | AFP-JIJI
While rhino poaching is common elsewhere, the Indonesian case has taken some conservationists by surprise.
“Poaching the Javan rhino is really a new topic,” said Timer Manurung, director of local environmental NGO Auriga Nusantara, which monitors the species.
Poaching of the animal had been rarely reported in recent decades in Java, Indonesia’s most populous island.
But last year Auriga Nusantara reported worrying signs that poachers were invading Ujung Kulon: snares had been discovered and a dead rhino was found with a hole in its head.
Help from insiders?
Yet the scale of the problem exceeds conservationists’ worst fears and has raised questions about how poachers tracked protected animals.
“There were several indications of insider help,” including the apparent tip-off of the fugitive poacher and claims that he had recent data on rhino locations, Timer said.
Muhammad Ali Imron, head of WWF Indonesia’s forest and wildlife programme, said there must be a “full assessment” of all those involved in rhino conservation, with a view to possible collusion.
Indonesian law enforcement has not yet confirmed insider help, but Fascione said poachers elsewhere have often operated with help from those meant to protect the species.
“All it takes is someone with financial problems … who needs money quickly and urgently, and who is sensitive to it,” Fascione said. “This is a problem everywhere.”
Local reports of the poaching claims began to appear in April, but it was not until early June that police and the park chief paraded the suspects before the media and released details of their alleged crimes.
And the poachers’ claims “need to be further verified by checking the remains of bones and other signs on the ground,” said Satyawan Pudyatmoko, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Nature Resources and Ecosystem Conservation.
He said officials had seen “no indication” of inside help and that suspects had been tipped off by residents of a nearby village.
Earlier this month, one of the arrested poachers was given a 12-year prison sentence, the toughest ever for an Indonesian wildlife crime, after a trial that lasted weeks.
The national park has also increased security with 24-hour patrols and experts say rangers are working hard to improve protection.
Figures ‘questionable’
Now the question is how many Javan rhinos are left.
Even before the poaching came to light, doubts had been raised about the government’s assessment of the wild population.
Satyawan said there were an estimated 76 in 2021 and 80 in 2022, based on track monitoring and camera traps.
They now believe that despite the poaching, 82 remain, with the population increasing through new births.
But Auriga Nusantara said last year that only 63 of them had been confirmed by sightings in 2018.
That could mean that the actual number of Javan rhinos in the wild is now closer to fifty.
A former teacher (right) educates children about animal conservation – including the critically endangered Javan rhino – with cardboard dolls in Cemara Kulon village, Indramayu, Indonesia, in 2022. | AFP-JIJI
An immediate, “transparent and credible” assessment of the species is needed now, Timer said.
“The current population really needs to be reassessed.”
He called for respected experts to be given full access to park data to count the number of rhinos, which can live between 30 and 45 years.
“Without these, the number will be questionable,” he added.
The species has been endangered for decades. He disappeared from his last refuge outside Indonesia, in Vietnam, in 2010 due to poaching.
But conservationists say they are not giving up hope for the species in Indonesia, where the population has previously recovered from near extinction.
“The Indonesian government has brought Javan rhinos back from the brink of extinction before, and can do it again,” Fascione said.
In March, another Javan rhino calf, estimated to be three months old, was spotted on camera in Ujung Kulon, showing that the species is still breeding well.
“Javanese rhinos know what to do,” Fascione said. “They just need to be protected to be able to do this.”
