Trouble for Indonesia’s Biodiversity

Jakarta Globe 4 Oct 12;

Bogor. Indonesia is fast losing its biodiversity due to rapid deforestation, a noted researcher said, citing an alarming number of plants on the verge of extinction.

The country is home to 393 flora listed as critically endangered, said Bambang Prasetya, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ biodiversity department.

The number represents a 1.7 percent increase compared to 2010, putting Indonesia in fourth place, alongside Brazil, on a list of countries with the most amount of threatened plants, according to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature issued last year.

Ecuador, the United States and Malaysia were the top three countries on the IUCN’s list.

“There must be an instrument which can comprehensively accommodate integrated conservation efforts of plants, starting from the ecosystem level to genetics,” Bambang said.

He added that such an instrument is vital for the management of natural resources in Indonesia.

“The role of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which has been recognized and adopted in botanical gardens around the world, is greatly needed,” Bambang said.

The GSPC program is part of the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity and was initiated to slow the pace of plant extinction around the world.

The strategy calls for the recognition, documentation and understanding of threatened plants as well as the formulation of steps for the conservation and sustainable use of them. Indonesia ratified the convention in 1994 and adopted it into law the same year.

Meanwhile, the Bogor Botanical Garden’s head of the center for plant conservation, Mustaid, said Indonesia is making little progress in the implementation of the GSPC because there exists a lack of centralized efforts and data collection.

“A national network related to the achievement of the GSPC’s goals needs to be built and utilized,” he said.

Antara