The Last Four Primates of South Pagai: New Threats and New Hope from Mentawai's Children

Addy Mukhziae, Rizaldi

Primate Conservation Education Program

The CE Field Team presented the results of the activities carried out in the first quarter of 2026.

Of the six primate species found nowhere else on Earth but the Mentawai Islands, only four still can be found in South Pagai, and all of them are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered. The Pagai macaque, Mentawai langur, Kloss's gibbon, and Pagai pig-tailed langur are now caught between two developments unfolding at once: a shifting threat, from large-scale logging to rampant poaching, and a flicker of hope from village children who have started speaking up about why the forest they call home is worth protecting.

These findings emerged during a dissemination session for the Mentawai Primate Conservation Education Program (CE Program), held on July 10, 2026, at the Faculty Meeting Hall of Universitas Andalas's Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA). The program, a partnership between FMIPA UNAND and Mandai Nature Singapore, grew out of an initial survey in 2023, became a formal collaboration in 2024, and is set to run through 2027. The session drew 35 participants, including students from the English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) program, undergraduate and graduate students from the regular program, exchange students from the University of Western Australia, and researchers from the Wildlife Research Center at Universitas Andalas.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Mai Efdi, Dean of FMIPA Unand, praised the program as a full realization of the university's Tri Dharma mandate, spanning teaching, research, and community service. Also in attendance were several Department of Biology faculty members: Dr. Aadrean (Conservation Ecologist, Head of the Biology Undergraduate Program, Department of Biology), Prof. Dahelmi (Entomologist, Head of the Zoology Museum, Department of Biology), and Prof. Henny Herwina (Entomologist, Head of the Department of Biology), along with Dr. Peter Speldewinde, an expert in Indigenous Ecology and Ecotourism from the University of Western Australia.

The session was opened by Dr. Rizaldi, an expert in Primatology and Behavioral Ecology and the program's initiator, who laid out its broader goals: building local awareness among Mentawai communities about protecting their endemic primates, developing sustainable alternative livelihoods, and establishing ecotourism and conservation areas managed directly by local communities.

Following that overview, the field team took the floor to present results from four core program components covering their field visit between May and June 2026.

As the Logging Companies Leave, a Harder-to-Track Threat Moves In

The first component presented was biodiversity, which has served as the basis for choosing the program's project sites from the start. South Pagai was selected as this year's primary location because of how frequently endemic primates were sighted there, even as the area still lacks any formal protected status. Based on those sighting records, the team chose three villages as its working area: Bulasat, Malakopa, and Sinaka.

Over this first quarter of fieldwork, the biodiversity team, led by Sah Putra Adrian, M.Si, recorded 9 mammal species, 49 bird species, and 8 herpetofauna species in the area, numbers that confirm South Pagai as one of the most important biodiversity strongholds in the Mentawai Islands. All four surviving endemic primates were sighted there, though how often varied by species: the Pagai macaque (Macaca pagensis) was encountered most frequently, followed by the Mentawai langur (Presbytis potenziani), Kloss's gibbon (Hylobates klossii), and, rarest of all, the Pagai pig-tailed snub-nosed langur (Simias concolor concolor).

The team also flagged another significant development. The logging company operating in the area had its permit revoked following an ecological disaster in November 2025. But that piece of good news hasn't brought full relief: with the threat of large-scale deforestation easing, rampant poaching has emerged as the team's most pressing concern.

There's also a separate, still-emerging threat worth watching closely. According to information gathered from Sipora, small, informal groups have begun cutting timber sporadically there, moving into the gap left by the larger operators. That pattern hasn't reached South Pagai yet, but the team believes it could easily cross over at any time.

When the Meaning of Traditional Hunting Starts to Shift

During our joint activities, the children and young people we involved were enthusiastic about discovering wildlife in their surroundings.

The next presentation came from the conservation education component, led by Meriani, S.Si. Through an approach that weaves conservation values into everyday life, the team shared three key findings from its time in the field.

First, there's been a noticeable shift: young people and students in the program area now show a stronger grasp of the endemic primates living around them compared with the program's first visit back in 2024. That ties into the second finding, that children and young people have started actively talking about why protecting Mentawai's forests, primates, and wildlife matters.

The third and most striking finding from the team's time in the field concerns a growing gap between how people hunt today and traditional hunting under Arat Sabulungan, the indigenous Mentawai belief system that governs hunting through customary rules, seasonal limits, and a broader principle of living in balance with nature. Local curriculum in schools still teaches hunting as part of Mentawai culture worth preserving, a value the team shares. The trouble is that hunting practices on the ground today no longer consistently follow that principle of balance. Finding a middle ground, one that honors hunting as part of cultural identity while protecting a primate population already in crisis, has become one of the program's most urgent challenges to resolve.

Searching for Room to Build Customary Forest on Land That Has Already Changed Hands

Two other components, sustainable livelihoods, led by Nur Azis Ariansyah, S.Si, and social forestry and ecotourism, led by Desi Nofla Melia, S.Sos, are still in the baseline data-gathering stage, laying the groundwork for what comes next. Even so, both have already run into some thorny structural obstacles.

Under the social forestry and ecotourism component, the team has been working to establish a protected area under the concept of Adat Forest (customary forest), land managed directly by indigenous communities, including for niche ecotourism built around the area's endemic primates in South Pagai. But that plan runs up against an inconvenient reality: most of the settlements in the area were built as permanent resettlement housing provided by the government after the 2010 tsunami. As a result, most of the forest land worked by residents is officially state forest that communities are merely permitted to manage, not customary land they hold outright. Compounding the issue, village governance, once organized around clan-based communal structures, has increasingly shifted toward appointments made by higher levels of government.

Given that, alternative approaches to community-managed social forestry areas need to be considered. The team has already identified at least three sites with potential for ecotourism development, though all still require better infrastructure, improved access, trained personnel, and clearer legal standing for community management.

Patchouli: An Economic Opportunity Already in Place, Just Needing Refinement

Patchouli oil produced by local farmers in South Pagai.

Under the sustainable livelihoods component, the team plans to introduce local farmers to agroforestry, growing multiple crops together on the same plot of land. Field data revealed that farmers in South Pagai had already adopted intercropped agroforestry on their own. The team sees that as a strong starting point, one that training could build on further, allowing farmers to get more out of the land they already have without needing to clear new plots.

One of South Pagai's most valuable crops is patchouli (Pogostemon cablin), a tropical shrub whose leaves are distilled into an essential oil widely used in perfumes, incense, cosmetics, and natural insect repellents. During the discussion, Prof. Mai Efdi, Dean of FMIPA Unand and also an expert in Organic Natural Product Chemistry, pointed out that the quality of patchouli oil coming out of South Pagai hasn't yet been refined to its full potential. In his view, better distillation practices would produce a clearer oil of higher quality, and with it, a better market price.

What Comes Next

The program still has until 2027 to run, with significant work ahead: finding common ground between hunting traditions and primate conservation, clarifying the legal status of customary forest land, and turning economic opportunities like patchouli and ecotourism into real benefits for South Pagai communities. What's already clear is that the seeds of change are taking root, carried forward by Mentawai's children, who are now part of the conversation about protecting the forest and wildlife in their own backyard.

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