Ledji Taq

Ledji Taq is head of the Wehea Customary Council, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. He led his community to establish the nearly 94,000-acres of Wehea Forest as a protected area that is off-limits to logging companies. The government of Indonesia approved this proposal, and in November 2004, the Wehea Customary Council declared the forest as Keldung Laas Wehea Long Skung-Metgueen or Wehea Protected Forest. Ledji Taq was granted Bintang Jasa Satya Lencana from the President for his exemplary work to protect the forest in 2009 and an environmental award from the provincial government in 2014. The Wehea people are the first and oldest indigenous tribe to inhabit the Wahau Watershed and once controlled large expanses of the forest.