The Jakarta Post 20 Apr 10;
Indonesia is lacking well-trained taxonomists who have the knowledge and skills to identify and preserve its rich yet dwindling biodiversity, environmentalists and scientists say.
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Oceanography Research Center chief Suharsono said there were only around 20 taxonomists in Indonesia, when it needed at least 100 to cover its biodiversity.
“The problem we are facing today is the fact that not enough people want to become taxonomists. Most people would rather take a more promising career path,” he said.
A taxonomist is still perceived as a nerdy profession; for someone who typically spends most of their time alone in damp laboratories or dusty libraries, Suharsono said.
The path to becoming a taxonomist is long and arduous, he added. They have to study for at least five years after graduating from university to memorize the names of existing species.
“To become a well-known taxonomist, one may need to spend hundreds of millions of rupiah [on research],” Suharsono said.
The institute is now looking for new talents in taxonomy through a selection program funded with money raised during the 2007 auction to name then newly discovered marine creatures in Raja Ampat regency, West Papua.
LIPI selected 160 people from five regions in the archipelago, including Makassar, South Sulawesi and Jakarta.
These people were from different backgrounds ranging from lecturers to activists.
A number of selection phases now have narrowed down the list to 20 possible taxonomists and para-taxonomists, who can identify species but not necessarily publicize their findings. Of the 20, only three are expected to become major taxonomists.
“We cannot conserve something if we are not acquainted with it,” said Jatna Supriatna, the vice president of Conservation International Indonesia.
In 2007, Conservation International, along with the Monaco-Asia Society, sponsored a charity auction conducted by Christie’s International in Monaco.
The auction gave numerous well-funded people and organizations an opportunity to bid on the naming rights to 11 newly found species, including the “walking shark” that “walks” with its fins along reefs.
The government claims Indonesia has a huge biodiversity, being home to 12 percent of the world’s mammal species (second only to Brazil) and 17 percent (1,531 species) of all bird species.
The country was also said to be home to 37 percent of the world’s species of fish.
However, most of those species are yet to be identified. Suharsono said the number of identified species could be around 30 percent, hence the urgent need for more taxonomists.
Jatna added that Indonesia’s marine population was under threat from human-bred species and species transported from other regions by humans.
“We must promote the country’s natural biodiversity … marine species could become extinct when we haven’t even named them yet,” he said.
Jatna said the rest of the US$2 million had been used for various purposes, including educating locals in the villages in the Bird’s Head area, about conserving marine species.
Scientists Offer Naming Rights for Cash
Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta Globe 20 Apr 10;
Imagine having your name, or the name of your child or company, immortalized by being used to name a newly discovered species. You can, if you have the money.
Paracheilinus nursalim, a fish species discovered in 2007, was named after Sjamsul and Itjih Nursalim, while Chrysiptera giti, another fish species, was named after Giti Group, the company of Enki Tan and Cherie Nursalim. Sjamsul Nursalim also happens to be the name of a suspect in the massive Bank Indonesia liquidity assistance fraud scheme in 1997.
A report released by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) on Monday said that the Nusalims and Enki and Cherie bought their naming rights through a bidding process, organized by Christie’s auction house, at a gala dinner in Monaco in 2007.
Another familiar Indonesian name among the bidders was Sindhuchajana Sulistyo, who won the right to name a species Pterois andover.
“Scientists discovering the species have given up their rights to name their findings in an effort to raise funds for marine conservation,” said Suharsono, head of LIPI’s Research Center for Oceanography.
The two species of fish were found in 2007 by scientists Gary Allen and Mark Erdmann in the Bird’s Head Seascape, an area in the northwest corner of Papua, along with nine other species, including two speckled sharks that walk on their fins and a species of seahorse.
Suharsono said the event raised more than $2 million and some $500,000 of it was given to LIPI to train 10 scientists to become marine taxonomists. With its vast oceanic biodiversity, Indonesia was in dire need of more marine taxonomists, he said.
“There are only about 20 marine taxonomists in the country, and that is very inadequate compared with our country’s abundant marine species,” Suharsono said.
Hery Harjono, LIPI’s deputy chairman for earth sciences, said: “There is a possibility that there are many marine species that have gone extinct without ever having been scientifically recorded.”
