Government clears forest in Wallacea line: Study

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 23 Feb 09;

Most of the tropical forest covering the Wallacea Line in eastern Indonesia have been cleared in the last half century, thanks to government programs.

A recent study found that besides clearing forests, the government-sponsored transmigration program had put dozens of rare bird, mammal and amphibian species in danger of extinction.

A study by Conservation International found that the remaining forest currently measured only 50,774 square kilometers, down from an initial 338,494 square kilometers.

“A deforestation problem that is somewhat unique to this region was caused by the transmigration program,” the study, titled “Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots” and published on Saturday, read.

The transmigration program, launched during former president Soeharto’s era, was aimed at tackling overcrowding on densely populated islands by moving large numbers of people to sparsely inhabited areas.

The report said there were currently about 1,500 endemic species of plants, 49 of threatened birds, 44 of mammals and seven of threatened amphibians in the Wallacea area.

The Wallacea line, named after naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who explored the area between 1854 and 1862, runs between Bali and Lombok to Borneo and Sulawesi.

The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, is restricted to the islands of Komodo, Padar, Rinca and Flores in the Wallacea hotspot.

The area is one of 23 hotspots to have experienced “warfare” in the second half of the 20th century, said the study published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology.

The study identified a hotspot as a region containing at least 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics, which has lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat. There are 34 hotspots around the globe.

The study said more than 80 percent of the world’s major armed conflicts, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths from 1950 to 2000, occurred in regions with the most biologically diverse and threatened places, from the Himalayas in Asia to the coastal forests of East Africa.

Conflicts often play out in the hotspots as fighters take advantage of the cover provided by deep forests and high mountains.

The use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons has increased their impact on the environment.

The study said that during the US war in Vietnam, the use of the defoliant Agent Orange by the US had destroyed forest cover. Timber harvesting also funded war chests in Liberia, Cambodia and Congo.

“In those and countless other cases, the collateral damage of war harmed both the biological wealth of the region and the ability of people to live off of it,” the report said.

It also found that refugees from wars in and around biodiversity hotspots could add to the problem by hunting for food, cutting trees for firewood and building camps in the endangered environments.

“This astounding conclusion — that the richest storehouses of life on earth are also the regions of the most human conflict — tells us that these areas are essential for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being,” Russell A. Mittermeier, Conservation International president, said in its statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

“Millions of the world’s poorest people live in hotspots and depend on healthy ecosystems for their survival, so there is a moral obligation — as well as political and social responsibility — to protect these places and all the resources and services they provide.”

Indonesia, the world’s third largest forest nation with about 120 million hectares of rainforest, has long been under pressure to protect the forest and its biodiversity.