Harry Pearl Jakarta Globe 10 Oct 14;
Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has failed to adequately address the population decline of Indonesia’s wild animals and curb the country’s growing ecological footprint, the director general of WWF International says.
Marco Lambertini, who was in Indonesia to relaunch the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s Living Planet Report 2014 on Friday, said Yudhoyono has “not done enough and the government has not done enough” to halt species decline or slow unsustainable growth.
But he added: “I don’t think any leader has.”
The comments follow WWF’s release of the tenth edition of its Living Planet Report last month. It claimed the world’s wildlife population had dropped by more than half since 1970.
The population of vertebrate wildlife species — mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — fell 52 percent between 1970 and 2010, according to the organization’s Living Planet Index, which measures trends in more than 10,000 wildlife populations over roughly 3,000 species.
The worst decline was among populations of freshwater species, which fell by 76 percent over the four decades to 2010, while marine and terrestrial numbers both fell by 39 percent.
The report said species loss was most acute in the tropics, particularly in South America, but the Asia-Pacific area was not far behind.
“The trend in Indonesia reflects trends overall in the tropical region. The tropics have suffered much higher [loss],” Lambertini told the Jakarta Globe.
In South America species decline has been at its most dramatic, about 83 percent on average since 1970. The Asia Pacific area had the second-highest rate of decline at 67 percent.
“Development in the tropics and in the Asia Pacific has accelerated over the past three decades,” Lambertini said. “It [loss] is a reflection of [that] acceleration.”
An unsustainable toll
The trend doesn’t bode well for Indonesia, whose economy is one of the world’s fastest growing, but geared towards manufacturing, agriculture and extractive industries.
Indonesia already has the highest rate of deforestation in the world — almost twice that of Brazil, according to a recent study — with vast tracts of primary and secondary forest cleared for the plantation sector, notably oil palm plantations.
And despite a moratorium on logging in 2011, deforestation is increasing.
“We should worry because biodiversity is the foundation of all ecosystems on earth,” Lambertini said. “It helps ecosystem stability, productivity.”
“They [species] provide invaluable services for us — clean air, raw materials, pollination.”
“Indonesia is one of the top-10 countries in terms of biodiversity. It’s a powerhouse of biodiversity.”
Habitat loss and degradation, along with unsustainable exploitation through hunting and fishing were identified as the primary drivers of wildlife loss in the report. Climate change was the next biggest threat and its impact was growing, Lambertini said.
The report also measure humanity’s ecological footprint, which captures how much biologically productive land and water is required to fulfill human demand. The world’s ecological footprint showed that 1.5 earths would be needed to keep pace with the demands humans make on nature each year.
“The consequences are diminished resource stocks and waste accumulating faster than it can be absorbed or recycled,” the report said.
Lambertini said the main challenges to halting wildlife decline were moving away from a fossil-fuel economy and creating a more sustainable supply chain.
Decoupling human development from an increasing ecological footprint was also a challenge, he said.
“It’s down to good land planning and a framework guide at government and local government level. The situation is very serious around the world and Indonesia is not an exception.”
