[Imogen Clowes is a student at Bristol UWE studying illustration. She has recently returned from a 5 week trip to Sumatra, Indonesia, and has send us this report on bird poaching, an increasing threat, and some of her beautiful drawings that we would like to share with our readers. Sumatra is where the RSPB is working to restore 100,000 hectares of forest, and working with partners to conserve the Sumatran tiger and many other species. All images copyright Imogen Clowes.]
For the majority of my time in Indonesia I stayed with my aunt, Debbie Martyr. She has lived and worked in Sumatra for 25 years. She works for Fauna & Flora International, and has been at the heart of efforts to conserve the Sumatran Tiger against the twin threats of poaching and deforestation. In 2000 she set up the Kerinci Seblat Tiger Conservation team. I went with the intention to develop illustrations around the theme of tigers and the threats to their survival, but my work took me in a variety of directions including religions, culture, education, politics and bird poaching.
Debbie and her fellow members of the tiger team expressed huge concerns about the level of bird poaching all over Sumatra. I spent some of my time drawing in bird shops in the city of Sungai Penuh. I picked up a lot of interesting information while drawing. I was also fortunate enough to go trekking with two members of the Kerinci Bird Club. I interviewed them about bird poaching, and also managed to interview someone who did not see the problem with poaching and enjoyed having exotic birds as pets – you can read more on my blog.
Thanks to Ed Drewitt of Bristol University for his help with the bird identification.