Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) sustains ~37 million hectares of native tropical forest. Numerous large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at promoting land-development activities are planned or ...ongoing in the region. However, little is known of the potential impacts of this new infrastructure on Bornean forests or biodiversity. We found that planned and ongoing road and rail-line developments will have many detrimental ecological impacts, including fragmenting large expanses of intact forest. Assuming conservatively that new road and rail projects will influence only a 1 km buffer on either side, landscape connectivity across the region will decline sharply (from 89% to 55%) if all imminently planned projects proceed. This will have particularly large impacts on wide-ranging, rare species such as rhinoceros, orangutans, and elephants. Planned developments will impact 42 protected areas, undermining Indonesian efforts to achieve key targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity. New infrastructure will accelerate expansion in intact or frontier regions of legal and illegal logging and land colonization as well as illicit mining and wildlife poaching. The net environmental, social, financial, and economic risks of several imminent projects-such as parallel border roads in West, East, and North Kalimantan, new Trans-Kalimantan road developments in Central Kalimantan and North Kalimantan, and freeways and rail lines in East Kalimantan-could markedly outstrip their overall benefits. Such projects should be reconsidered in light of rigorous cost-benefit frameworks.
Market is the main place for transactions of medicinal plants and traditional ingredients by local community in the Karo regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. This is the first study to document the ...local knowledge of traders on and the diversity of the medicinal plants. The investigation was carried out in the Kabanjahe traditional market, in the Karo regency. The research goal was to reveal the local knowledge, diversity and utilization of medicinal plants, which have been traded in the Kabanjahe traditional market, as a basis for conservation efforts.
The study was conducted through ethnobotanical approach using market surveys. All traders of medicinal plants were surveyed applying in-depth interviews and participative observations. Data were analyzed qualitatively using descriptive statistics. The diversity of medicinal plants was expressed in term of the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H'), whereas the similarity among traders was indicated by Jaccard index (Ji).
Traders of medicinal plants stored the simplicia of medicinal plants in chest of drawers, plastic baskets, plastic bags, and in the air by suspending them from the the stall ceilings. We recorded 344 species, 217 genera and 90 families of medicinal plants. Those that were sold mostly belong to Zingeberaceae (20 species), Poaceae (19 species), and Asclepiadaceae (17 species), and the species received high consumers demand, mostly belong to Zingiberaceae, Rutaceae, and Asclepidiaceae. Asclepidiaceae was used to treat diseases like cancer and heart problems. The Shannon–Wiener diversity index of medicinal plants at the Kabanjahe traditional market was high (H'= 5.637). The high Jaccard similarity index (Ji>0.56) suggested that the traders were trading similar species of medicinal plants.
Kabanjahe traditional market is the center for the sale of of medicinal plants as traditional ingredients. Several species are well known for their pharmacological properties but others, such as: Dischidia imbricata (Blume) Steud., Dischidia nummularia R.Br., Hoya macrophylla Blume, and Hoya coriacea Blume have been used for cancer treatment by local communities, but pharmacologically unknown, hence they are promising candidates for further investigation.
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Biodiversity is a word recently introduced by experts in the field of biology. This word became more meaningful after Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University introduced it in a book entitled ...Biodiversity, an extension of biological diversity, in 1989 11. In subsequent developments, it became very popular and used not only by environmental biologists but also by researchers, environmentalists, funders, educators, social experts, economists, policy makers, and many others, although many do not know what that means. Biodiversity includes variations within the biological community, where living species, and ecosystems, where communities are located, as well as interaction between them (Pri. The science of biodiversity has emerged rapidly since then included monitoring and evaluation systems which is measuring the value of biodiversity components, such as the number of species present, the population of species, a habitat or the sum of all such components within a given area or site. Such monitoring and evaluation may be carried out for a variety of reasons, included identification of a given area for biodiversity richness, evenness or healthy ecosystems. The richness is the number of species per sample, the more species present in a sample, the richer the sample. Evenness is a measure of the relative abundance of the different species making up the richness of an area. Two commonly used to measure biodiversity Simpson index Ds and Shannon’s index H’. Simpson’s index DS is similarity index (the higher the value the lower in diversity). While Shannon index is combining evenness and richness and less weighted on dominant species. Both indexes are more reflective in nature and can predict the environment health. Therefore, it may be good to have one of those biodiversity indexes to be used for UI GreenMetric to understand the environment healthiness in the campus.
The human footprint (HF) was developed to measure of the impact of human activities on the environment. The human footprint has been found to be closely related to the vulnerability of protected ...areas around the world. In Indonesia, as nature conservation is still seen as hindering economic development, it is especially important to assess the human footprint in order to comprehend the overall pressures resulting from the various human activities on Indonesia's national parks. This study measured the change in the human footprint in and around 43 terrestrial national parks over 5 years, between 2012 and 2017. As many as 37 out of 43 NPs experienced an increase in the HF, ranging from 0.4 to 77.3%. Tanjung Puting in Kalimantan experienced the greatest increase (77.3%), while Ujung Kulon in Jawa Bali bioregion had the greatest decrease (10.5%). An increase in human population density and improved access to parks from roads, rivers and coastlines are the main drivers of increasing impacts on national parks.
Major advances in biology and ecology have sharpened our understanding of what the goals of biodiversity conservation might be, but less progress has been made on how to achieve conservation in the ...complex, multi-sectoral world of human affairs. The failure to deliver conservation outcomes is especially severe in the rapidly changing landscapes of tropical low-income countries. We describe five techniques we have used to complement and strengthen long-term attempts to achieve conservation outcomes in the landscapes and seascapes of such regions; these are complex social-ecological systems shaped by interactions between biological, ecological and physical features mediated by the actions of people. Conservation outcomes occur as a result of human decisions and the governance arrangements that guide change. However, much conservation science in these countries is not rooted in a deep understanding of how these social-ecological systems work and what really determines the behaviour of the people whose decisions shape the future of landscapes. We describe five scientific practices that we have found to be effective in building relationships with actors in landscapes and influencing their behaviour in ways that reconcile conservation and development. We have used open-ended inductive enquiry, theories of change, simulation models, network analysis and multi-criteria analysis. These techniques are all widely known and well tested, but seldom figure in externally funded conservation projects. We have used these techniques to complement and strengthen existing interventions of international conservation agencies. These five techniques have proven effective in achieving deeper understanding of context, engagement with all stakeholders, negotiation of shared goals and continuous learning and adaptation.
Leo S, Supriatna J, Mizuno K, Margules C. 2021. Indigenous Dayak Iban customary perspective on sustainable forest management, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 424-435. Borneo is the ...third-largest island in the world, is rich in biodiversity and has diverse unique ecosystems. However, deforestation and land tenure conflicts continue to threaten the indigenous people who rely on forest resources for their livelihoods and well-being. This study aimed to identify the ecosystem services and the value of customary forest resources, identify local wildlife species, and document the traditional knowledge that the Iban indigenous community of West Kalimantan use to manage their customary forest. We collected relevant data using Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA), in-depth interviews, and wildlife surveys. The customary forest provides significant ecosystem services, mainly carbon sequestration (exceeds US$ 52 million/year), water-related services (exceeds US$ 21 million/year), and the 52 wildlife species recorded in the customary forest. Forest resources are managed successfully by the community through traditional knowledge and customary laws passed down for generations. The integration of local and expert knowledge and involvement from all related stakeholders would boost sustainable forest management and enhance the economic benefits and livelihoods of the community. Following current trends, recognizing customary forest and appropriate sustainable forest management could effectively tackle deforestation and land tenure conflicts in Borneo. Further studies should be considered to develop specific activities on managing the forest sustainably that the community can implement and evaluate.
Abstract Mammal populations are declining in biodiverse tropical regions. Global analyses have identified Indonesia as a hotspot of vertebrate decline, although relatively few data are available to ...substantiate these claims. We reviewed research articles published during 2000–2020 on 104 medium-sized to large terrestrial mammal species found in Indonesia to help inform conservation management and future research. We identified 308 peer-reviewed studies published in English or Bahasa Indonesia, with an increase in publication rate (articles published per year) over time. Studies of species distributions dominated the literature, followed by publications on abundance, species diversity and combinations of these topics. Most publications concerned single-species studies conducted at a single location and a single point in time. We identify four key issues that should be addressed by future research and conservation efforts: (1) disproportionate focus on a small number of species; (2) geographical bias towards west Indonesia (Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java–Bali), with few published studies from central (Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku) and east (Papua) Indonesia; (3) limitations to survey design, sampling effort and data analysis; and (4) lack of long-term wildlife population studies. We also note challenges local researchers face in publishing their studies in international journals because of language barriers and costs. Greater use of existing biodiversity data and continued capacity building for local researchers, particularly those in central and east Indonesia, are critical to effectively guide future wildlife monitoring and improve the conservation status of Indonesian mammals.
Anthropogenic‐driven species extinctions are radically changing the biosphere. Biological communities may become increasingly similar to or dissimilar from one another via the processes of biotic ...homogenisation or heterogenisation. A key question is how the conversion of native forests to agriculture may influence these processes by driving changes in the occurrence patterns of restricted‐range endemic species versus wide‐ranging generalists. We examined biotic homogenisation and heterogenisation in bird communities on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo, Sulawesi, Seram, Buru, Talaud and Sangihe. Each island is characterised by high levels of avian endemism and unique spatial configuration of forest conversion to agriculture. Forest conversion to agriculture influenced the patterns of biotic homogenisation on five islands. Bird communities became increasingly dissimilar to forest reference communities relative to localised patterns of deforestation. Turnover led to species with larger global range‐sizes dominating communities at the expense of island endemics and ecological specialists. Within islands, forest conversion did not result in clear changes to β‐diversity, whereas between‐island communities became increasingly similar with greater deforestation, implying that patterns of forest conversion profoundly affect biotic homogenisation. Our findings elucidate how continued conversion of forests is causing the replacement of endemic species by a small cohort of shared ubiquitous species with potentially strong negative consequences for ecosystem functioning and resilience. Halting reorganisation of the biosphere via the loss of range‐restricted species and spread of wide‐ranged generalists will require improved efforts to reduce the impacts of deforestation, particularly in regions with high endemism.
Abstract
The Wallacea biogeographic region of Sulawesi, the Moluccas and Lesser Sunda is globally renowned for exceptional endemism, but is currently emerging as a development frontier in Indonesia. ...We assessed patterns and drivers of forest loss and fragmentation across the region, and used dynamic deforestation models to project future deforestation to 2053. Up to 10 231 km
2
was deforested between 2000 and 2018, and a further 49 570 km
2
is expected to be lost by 2053, with annual deforestation rates ranging between 0.09% and 2.17% in different sub-regions (average: 1.23%). Key biodiversity areas (priority sites for endemic and threatened biodiversity) are particularly vulnerable to deforestation if they are small, coastal and unprotected. Sub-regional variation in deforestation patterns and drivers must be acknowledged if conservation interventions are to be targeted and effective. We provide a valuable baseline from which to monitor Wallacea’s new development course, as Indonesia undergoes profound policy changes that will provide both challenges and opportunities for environmental governance and conservation.
Landscape approaches are widely applied in attempts to reconcile tradeoffs amongst different actors with conflicting demands on land and water resources. Key principles for landscape approaches have ...been endorsed by inter-governmental processes dealing with climate change mitigation and adaptation and biodiversity conservation.
We review experiences from seven landscapes located in the Congo Basin, Eastern Indonesia and Northern Australia. Landscape initiatives were applied in situations where large-scale extractive industries, local peoples’ livelihoods and global biodiversity objectives were in conflict. We found that common published principles for landscape approaches are not applied systematically in the areas studied. Practitioners draw upon landscape approach principles selectively and adapt them to deal with local conditions. We consider that landscape approaches do not provide silver bullet solutions to these situations nor do they provide an operational framework for large-scale land management. Landscape approaches do, however, provide an organising framework for disentangling the complexity of the landscape and facilitating the investigation of impacts of different courses of action. They enable alternative scenarios for what future landscapes might look like to be investigated and they create the space for multi-stakeholder negotiations. Outcomes from landscape scale approaches are determined by the power differentials amongst stakeholders and the existence, or otherwise, of functional institutions to take decisions and enforce agreements. Landscape approaches cannot overcome disparities in power or entrenched interests nor can they substitute for institutions with authority to establish and legitimise property and resource rights. They can, however, provide a mechanism around which civil society can be mobilised to achieve better land use outcomes. Landscape approaches are successful when they have strong leadership, sustained long-term and facilitated processes, good governance, adequate budgets and adequate metrics for assessing progress. Private sector engagement is necessary and all parties must have sufficient shared interest in outcomes to motivate their participation.
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