San Francisco, CA – May 28 , 2025 – Today, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) released a landmark report, Ten Years in the Leuser Ecosystem: A Rainforest Frontier Driving a New Era of Landscape Conservation, documenting over a decade of action, investigation, and groundbreaking progress in one of the world’s most critically important rainforests—and pointing the way forward for how corporations can implement large-scale, rights-based conservation across their supply chains.
The Leuser Ecosystem on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia—home to Sumatran orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinos—is the last place on Earth where these critically endangered species coexist in the wild. For over a decade, this biodiversity hotspot has also been a battleground between aggressive palm oil expansion and community-driven forest protection.
The new report chronicles how RAN helped spark a global reckoning in corporate supply chains, exposing deforestation, mobilizing consumer campaigns, and pushing more than 200 companies to adopt “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policies. It also details the rise of jurisdictional conservation programs, like those in Aceh Tamiang and Aceh Timur, where collaborative efforts between governments, civil society organizations, communities, brands, and traders have driven measurable forest protection and restoration.
“The Leuser is more than just a rainforest—it’s a living blueprint for how we can transform destructive commodity supply chains into engines for conservation and community conflict resolution,” said Gemma Tillack, Forests Policy Director at Rainforest Action Network. “This report proves that real change is possible when brands and traders go beyond paper promises and invest in lasting, rights-based landscape solutions. The lessons learned here must now be adapted to other unique landscapes and scaled across other forest-risk commodities.”
The report also comes as companies prepare to comply with new regulatory standards, including the EU Deforestation Regulations (EUDR), which demand unprecedented levels of supply chain traceability and accountability. RAN’s findings reveal that corporate investments in traceability, collaborative forest monitoring, and smallholder inclusion are delivering results—but only when matched with consistent pressure and follow-through.
RAN is calling on major brands and traders to take the next step by scaling up their commitments and investing in proven jurisdictional models—grounded in Indigenous rights and environmental justice—to halt deforestation not just in the Leuser Ecosystem, but across tropical forest regions globally.
The report is available for download at: https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Leuser_10_Years_2025_vF.pdf