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

       Aceh Dispatch

       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.

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

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       By Muktita Suhartono

       Photographs by Ulet Ifansasti

       Reporting from Damaran Baru, Indonesia

       Nov. 27, 2023

       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.

       “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.”

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       Muktita Suhartono reports from Indonesia and Thailand. She joined The Times in 2018 and is based in Bangkok. More about Muktita Suhartono

       A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 28, 2023, Section A , Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: As Rangers, Indonesian Women Guard the Forest They Live In . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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