Tesso Nilo National Park

Tesso Nilo National Park is a national park in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. It was declared a national park by the Indonesian government in 2004. The original area of the park was 385.76 km2, but the decision has been made to expand it to 1000 km2. Tesso Nilo National Park houses some of the largest coherent lowland rainforests remaining on Sumatra. The Center for Biodiversity Management has surveyed over 1,800 plots in tropical forests around the world. They found that no other plot has as many vascular plants as in Tesso Nilo. Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) surveyed forests throughout Sumatra, and also found that Tesso Nilo housed by far the most species.Flora and faunaCritically endangered Sumatran elephants and Sumatran tigers live here.Conservation and threatsThe park suffers heavy encroachment from illegal loggers and illegal settlers who clear the park for crops and palm oil plantations, as well as village sites. Already, 28,600 hectares, or about a third of the park, has been deforested. In November 2009, WWF announced that the park had finally been expanded by 44,492 hectares but encroachment still remains a serious problem.According to a WWF report published in June 2013, oil palm plantations cover 36,353 ha of the Tesso Nilo forest complex, with two business groups (Asian Agri and Wilmar Groups) being involved in the trade of the oil palm fruit illegally grown inside the national park. Furthermore, 50 mills operating around the Tesso Nilo forest complex were identified.