Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 4 Jun 10;
Indonesia’s submission to the United Nations of its biodiversity assessment fails to underline the threats facing the country’s rich variety of plant and animal life, an Environment Ministry official said on Friday.
The Fourth National Report on the Convention on Biological Diversity, submitted to the Convention on Biological Diversity, is a report on the implementation of the CBD’s articles and programs at the national level.
The report, drawn up using guidelines provided by the CBD secretariat, consists of a review of status, trends and major threats to biodiversity.
“However, we haven’t managed to conclude what the trend in Indonesia is, because the data were scattered and not thorough enough,” said Utami Handayani, assistant deputy for biodiversity conservation at the State Ministry for the Environment.
According to the report, Indonesia ranks in the top five nations worldwide in terms of the diversity of its plant life. An estimated 55 percent of plant species found in Indonesia are native to the archipelago.
The report also shows Indonesia is home to 515 mammal species — 12 percent of the world’s known mammal species.
At the ecosystem level, conservation is carried out through the establishment of conservation areas that serve as places for the protection and preservation of biodiversity, such as biosphere reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, ecotourism parks, forest parks and hunting parks.
Coverage of these areas has increased to 279,680 square kilometers in 2007, from 76,280 square kilometers in 1981.
There was also a reported increase in the number of plant and animal species being bred in captivity, up to 416 species in 2008 from 171 species in 2006.
Of those breeding activities in 2008, 383 were for protected plant and animal species.
The report also managed to identify some of the threats to biodiversity in the country, including the high population growth rate, deforestation, wildfires, habitat degradation and fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.
The data used in compiling the report was gathered between 2003 and 2008, and the report’s authors noted it needed to be extrapolated to the present, or else the results of the study would not accurately reflect the progress of the 2010 biodiversity targets.
“The data was gathered within those years but was compiled in 2009,” Utami said. “However, we then realized these data were still incomplete, so we didn’t make any conclusions on the trends.”
She added that parties to the CBD must finalize all assessment reports before October, when a meeting will be held in Japan of convention signatories to discuss access and benefit-sharing issues.
She also said that collecting data on the country’s biodiversity was a complex undertaking, given the challenging terrain and the bureaucratic muddle of farming out different tasks to different institutions.
