for oil palm plantation in the buffer zone of the National Park In 1982 the National Conservation Plan highlighted the importance of the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem and classified the two conservation areas of Bukit Besar Wildlife Sanctuary () and Seberida Nature Reserve () as priority I conservation areas. In 1992 the Indonesian Government in cooperation with the Norwegian Government conducted research to document the biological value of the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem. As the result of research, the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem with an area of was recommended to be determined as a national park. In 1995 Bukit Tigapuluh was established as a national park by Ministerial Decree comprising an area of . In 2002 its area was expanded to . The Park has been under consistent threat from illegal logging and
palm oil plantations, with two-thirds of the park logged.
Orangutan reintroduction The orangutan reintroduction in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park is organized by the
Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP). The first reintroduction station for orangutans close to the park was built in 2001 by the German biologist Dr. Peter Pratje, with the support of
the Frankfurt Zoological Society and local partners. It offers a school-like program to train individual orangutans, who grew up in captivity, to survive the wild. In 2002 the Batu Mbelin orangutan quarantine centre was completed near Medan in North Sumatra, which is operated by PanEco. In December 2002 the first orangutans were transferred from the quarantine centre to the rehabilitation centre near Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and reintroduced shortly after. Nowadays two orangutan reintroduction stations are operated close to the park's boundaries which focus on reintroducing the animals to the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park. Since then, over 190 orangutans have been treated at the quarantine centre and over 160 of these have already been transferred to Bukit Tigapuluh for reintroduction under the auspices of the
Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme. At least 4 infants have also been born to reintroduced mothers, these infants being the first to be conceived and born in the forests of Jambi possibly for more than 100 years.
Cats Camera traps set up in the Bukit Tigapuluh forest in March and April 2011 by the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have taken images of 12 rare Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs. Subsequently, the organisation intensified its campaign against the planned logging of the area. Although the Indonesian government agreed in 2010 to implement a 2-year moratorium on new forest clearance, the presidential regulation that imposes the moratorium was only signed in May 2011. None of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is covered by the moratorium and
Asia Pulp & Paper plans to clear large areas of the forest. In November 2011, the WWF announced five endangered cats in the forests of Riau. Within three months of systematic survey using automatic surveillance cameras at the 'corridor' between the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and
Rimbang Baling Sanctuary, they found Sumatran tiger (
Panthera tigris sumatrae), Sunda clouded leopard (
Neofelis diardi), marbled cat (
Pardofelis marmoata), golden cat (
Catopurna temmincki), and leopard cat (
Prionailurus bengalensis). The cats pass the same tracks all the time in the corridor, but both areas connected by the corridor are currently threatened by
deforestation. ==References==