Guarding the Scales Behind the Jungle: How LPHD Rio Kemunyang Proves Community-Based Conservation Can Protect the Sunda Pangolin
20 February 2026
The Rio Kemunyang Village Forest in Durian Rambun Village is more than just an administrative buffer zone for Kerinci Seblat National Park. This area is a living fortress that proves forest-edge communities are key actors in safeguarding ecological networks. Beneath its dense canopy, the Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica) moves quietly, digging into the soil and maintaining the balance of our forest ecosystem.
The main threat to most pangolin species is illegal hunting and killing for local consumption, as well as international illegal trade. The latest estimates based on seizure data suggest that the equivalent of more than 895,000 pangolins were traded globally between 2000 and 2019 (Challender et al., 2019). This trade primarily involves pangolin scales and meat, largely trafficked to East and Southeast Asia, along with smaller quantities of other body parts.
All eight pangolin species are assessed as threatened by the IUCN (2019). In particular, the Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), the Philippine Pangolin (Manis culionensis), and the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) are classified as Critically Endangered.
The Rio Kemunyang Village Forest Management Institution (LPHD Rio Kemunyang) upholds an essential principle: wildlife protection is not merely about complying with regulations such as Indonesia’s Law No. 5 of 1990 or the species’ Appendix I status under CITES. More than that, wildlife conservation is an integral part of maintaining the “ecosystem services” that sustain the community itself.
More Than Just Wildlife: Pangolins as Guardians of Ecosystem Services
Within the forest’s web of life, pangolins play an extraordinary ecological role. As ant and termite eaters, they act as natural pest controllers that help maintain vegetation structure and soil fertility (Ma et al., 2017). Their digging behavior improves soil aeration and accelerates nutrient cycling processes essential for forest regeneration.
This means that when the residents of Durian Rambun Village protect pangolins, they are simultaneously maintaining insect population stability, preserving soil health, and ensuring the integrity of the watershed buffer functions. Protecting this key species forms the foundation for sustaining ecosystem services whose benefits are widely felt.
Technical Intervention: Integrating Local Knowledge and Conservation Technology
The success of the Durian Rambun community is no coincidence; it is the result of structured forest governance. Through strategic collaboration, CFES strengthens the capacity of LPHD Rio Kemunyang by combining local wisdom with technocratic approaches and conservation technology.
CFES mentoring focuses on measurable forest protection through the SMART Patrol system. Together with community members, we map patrol routes, identify high-risk points, and apply systematic pangolin monitoring techniques. Every field finding is no longer just a story—it becomes verified, evidence-based data.
Since monitoring efforts were intensified in 2024, the LPHD Rio Kemunyang Pangolin Monitoring Survey Report has recorded 26 points of wildlife presence indicators around the village forest. This achievement peaked in 2025, when community patrol teams successfully made direct visual contact with a pangolin and documented its activity using camera traps.
Nurturing Harmony, Inviting Support
The fact that this shy species considered the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world, it feels safe enough to forage within village forest areas proves one thing: ecosystem pressures can be drastically reduced through community consistency and awareness.
While the global community celebrates World Pangolin Day every February, the residents of Durian Rambun celebrate it every day through their footsteps along patrol routes. As long as they continue to care for their forest, they are safeguarding the harmony of a small universe called the ecosystem.
However, forest-edge communities should not bear this responsibility alone. The efforts of LPHD Rio Kemunyang demonstrate that local communities can provide ecosystem services of global significance. Now, it is our collective duty to ensure their dedication receives fair support, recognition, and appreciation.
Let us support community-based conservation together with CFES.
References
Daniel W.S. Challender; Sarah Heinrich; Chris R. Shepherd; Lydia K.D. Katsis. 2020. International trade and trafficking in pangolins, 1900–2019, Pangolins Science, Society and Conservation Biodiversity of World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes.
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES.
Ma, Jing-E; Li, Lin-Miao; Jiang, Hai-Ying; Zhang, Xiu-Juan; Li, Juan; Li, Guan-Yu; Yuan, Li-Hong; Wu, Jun; Chen, Jin-Ping. 2017. Transcriptomic analysis identifies genes and pathways related to myrmecophagy in the Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica). identifies genes and pathways related to myrmecophagy in the Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica).”