Assistant Secretary Cantor Highlights Interior Department’s Commitments to Conservation Partnerships in Visit to Thailand and Indonesia

Date: Monday, July 29, 2024
Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Assistant Secretary Carmen G. Cantor wrapped up a multi-day trip to Thailand and Indonesia on Friday where she reaffirmed the Department of the Interior’s conservation partnerships across Southeast Asia. The visit underscored the Department’s long-term commitment to the region through the International Technical Assistance Program (DOI-ITAP), investments in wildlife conservation and protected areas, and partnerships with regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

In Bangkok, Thailand, Assistant Secretary Cantor joined U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Robert Godec to help launch the U.S. Embassy’s new “Virtual Jungle Thailand” campaign to raise awareness about endangered wildlife species. By deploying extended reality applications, the campaign encourages users to interact safely with virtual wildlife, including tigers and elephants.  

Throughout her week in Thailand, Assistant Secretary Cantor highlighted successful U.S. – Thai partnerships to counter wildlife trafficking, including those led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) international law enforcement attaché program. Over the last 10 years, the Department has built close relationships with the Government of Thailand and non-governmental conservation organizations on countering wildlife trafficking, leading to various successful joint transnational criminal investigations. 

Assistant Secretary Cantor also underscored the Department’s longstanding partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Regional Development Mission that promotes conservation programs across Southeast Asia. To further this partnership, President Biden announced at the 2022 U.S. – ASEAN Special Summit in Washington, D.C, a new U.S. – ASEAN Alliance for Protected Area Conservation. Led by DOI-ITAP, in partnership with the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and the 10 ASEAN member states, this alliance will expand conservation, combat deforestation, and collaborate in the establishment, management and regional networking of national park systems. 

During her visit, Assistant Secretary Cantor toured the USFWS-supported operations center of the Royal Thai Police’s Natural Resources Enforcement Division and received a briefing from Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation on its widespread use of SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) patrols across its protected areas system. She also toured Asian elephant conservation projects funded through USFWS grants and Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand’s largest national park and a World Heritage Site and ASEAN Heritage Park.  

Assistant Secretary Cantor later traveled to Indonesia, where for more than ten years, DOI-ITAP has partnered with USAID to support national park management, wildlife conservation, peatland restoration and marine protected areas. In Jakarta, Assistant Secretary Cantor joined Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry to discuss shared priorities to protect and conserve public lands, met with ASEAN Secretary-General Dr. Kao Kim Hourn to discuss shared environmental and climate goals, and highlighted the next phase of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat program and Earth observations data sharing with Chairman Laksana Tri Handoko of Indonesia’s Research and Innovation Agency.  

Landsat – a partnership between USGS and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – is the only U.S. satellite system designed and operated to collect essential data on Earth’s geologic formations, natural habitats, farmlands, cities, lakes, glaciers, coastlines and other surface features. Landsat provides imagery at landscape-scale resolution that can be used to support efforts to improve environmental sustainability, climate change resiliency, and economic growth – all while expanding an unparalleled record of Earth's changing landscapes. 

Following meetings in Jakarta, Assistant Secretary Cantor traveled to Central Kalimantan to join officials from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to visit Tanjung Puting National Park, one of the region’s largest protected areas. A sister park with Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida since 2016, Tanjung Puting is home to the world's largest population of wild orangutans and carbon-rich peat swamp forests and is an important site for future sister park activities focused on wildlife conservation and climate science.   

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