Power Rangers With A Different Approach

Organikos

Nov 30

Women rangers hugged a tree while collecting data during a forest patrol near the village of Damaran Baru, in Aceh Province, Indonesia. Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times

We thank Muktita Suhartono for the story and Ulet Ifansasti for the photographs:

Female Rangers 'Don't Go All Alpha Like the Men' to Protect a Forest

Rather than take a confrontational approach with trespassers looking to farm or log in a tropical rainforest in Indonesia, teams of women rangers try dialogue first.

Asmia, one of 15 rangers whose job is to protect nearby forests from squatters who want to clear trees for timber or to farm the fertile soil.

Riding her motorbike while balancing a backpack, a wok and a sharp cleaver, Asmia expertly maneuvered her way up a dangerous cliffside: a three-mile trip along a precipitous dirt path, barely 40 inches wide, to reach the mouth of the forest.

Asmia is one of the 15 members of a team of rangers — 10 of whom are women — whose job is to protect their village forest in Aceh Province in Indonesia from the squatters who want to clear the trees for timber or to farm the fertile soil.

Two teams of rangers, each consisting of five women and two men, take turns each month on five-day forest patrols.

"Here, we once fought with a squatter, asking him to stop the encroachment," Asmia said, pointing as she walked beneath the thick canopy of trees that shadow her rounds. "He insisted on clearing the land, as he wanted to grow coffee. He was persistent. But we talked him out of it."

Dressed in headscarves, green uniforms and rubber boots, Asmia and the other female rangers on the team ventured deeper into the tropical rain forest they are charged with guarding, part of the Leuser ecosystem on the island of Sumatra.

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