Indonesia’s worsening biodiversity crisis and

possible solutions

Richard A. NoskeSchool of Environmental & Life SciencesCharles Darwin University Darwin, NT, Australia

Southeast Asia has:• highest proportion

of country-endemic bird (9%) and mammal (11%) species

• vascular plants 2nd highest (25%)

• highest proportion of threatened species in all taxa (except amphibians)

Deforestation rates

• Recently increasing

• Many “protected” forests being degraded by illegal logging

SE Asia highest among all tropical regions

Predicted extinctions before 2100

• Mostly based on species-area relationship (SAR)

• Brook et al. (2003): 13-42% of all SE Asian species will be lost by 2100 due to loss of 72-90% of habitat

• .... BUT countries with highest number of endemic species also had highest deforestation rates

• Sodhi & Brook (2006): 24-63% of SE Asian endemic taxa (including 66% birds and 85% mammals)

• Still probably under-estimates because of unmodelled factors: climate change, invasive competitors/ predators, forest fragmentation and synergistic effects

The proportion of land still forested is negatively correlated

with human population

density (r = 0.82)

Human population density is one of the driving forces of deforestation & biodiversity

loss (Indonesia has the 5th largest population in the world)

The proportion of threatened plant and vertebrate animal species is correlated with the proportion of

human population in urban areas

(r = 0.77)

Indonesia’a mega-biodiversity

Despite covering only 1.4% of the world’s surface area, Indonesia has:

• 25,000 species flowering plants (10%, world total)• 1,530 species birds (17%), of which 380 species (24%)

endemic• 515 species mammals (12%), of which 36% endemic• 16% of all reptiles and amphibians• 20% of all fish species

....................................Why?

Endemism

Indonesia has almost twice as many bird species with a restricted-range (< 50,000 km2) as any other nation

Stattersfield et al. (1998)

Threatened birds

• Over 10% of the world’s bird species threatened with extinction by human activities

• Indonesia is highest in world, with 117 threatened species

• Of these species, 66 have restricted ranges (see chart)

Why is biodiversity and endemicity so high in Indonesia?

• Indonesia straddles two major faunal regions:

– Oriental and Australian

• Brought to attention of Western science by Sir Alfred Russel Wallace who spent 9 years in "Malay Archipelago" (Indonesia) in 1850s

His letter from Ternate influenced Charles Darwin in shaping the most important theory in biology

Hall (1998) The Land/Sea Bridge of SE Asia:5 million years ago

Sunda-Sahul region during one of many Pleistocene glacial maxima. Light green areas, over 90 fathoms (except Wallacea)

Pleistocene (1.8 My) to present

Wallacea

Sundaland

Australo-Papua

Patterns of species richness and endemism: birds

• Species are not evenly distributed across Indonesia

• Largely explained by geological history and island biogeography– Larger islands close to the mainland are richer than smaller

islands further from mainland

• Greater Sundas: – high biodiversity, lower endemism

• Wallacea (Sulawesi, Lesser Sundas, Maluku):– lower biodiversity, very high endemism

Diversity: high low highEndemism: low high moderate

Resident land birds in Greater Sunda islands & Wallacea

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The majority of endemic birds in the Greater Sundas are montane

No. land % Residents % Endemic % Land Highest

resident which are spp which birds mtspecies endemic (n) montane (n) montane (m)

Sumatra * 397 5.5 (22) 59 (13) 26 3,805Java * 289 10.4 (30) 53 (16) 28 3,676Sumatra-Java *# 475 13.3 (63) 62 (39) - -Borneo * 358 10.1 (36) 72 (26) 24 4,101Timor † 137 16.1 (23) 5 (1) 9 2,963New Guinea** c. 570 ? 33 > 5,000

 Sources: * MacKinnon & Phillipps (1993); **Pratt (1982); † Mayr (1944), Noske, pers. obs, ** Beehler et al. (1989)# includes species shared between the two islands

Why are most of the endemic birds on the Greater Sundas montane?

• During Pleistocene interglacial periods, the drier lowlands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java were often joined to mainland SE Asia, allowing Asian species to repeatedly colonise this part of Indonesia

• During the wetter inter-glacials periods, differentiation of lowland species was diluted by gene flow between related species from neighbouring islands or the mainland.

• In contrast, the mountains remained evergreen "islands", facilitating isolation and speciation

Major threats to Indonesia’s biodiversity (Sodhi et al. 2009)

• High rate of deforestation – 1.7% natural forest lost annually, 1990-2005

• Commercial logging – top tropical log producer, 2004-2007

• Illegal wildlife trade

• Oil palm production – 12.5% annual growth rate, 1996-2006

• Corruption (Global rank: 143)

Deforestation in Sumatra & Kalimantan

• At start of 20th century, 85-90% covered in forest• 1900-1985

– 165,000 km2 in Sumatra– 102,000 km2 in Kalimantan

• 1985-1997– 67,000 km2 (28%) from Sumatra– 90,000 km2 (22%), Kalimantan

• 51-70% of recently cleared forest was from lowland plains, with the richest biodiversity

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Indonesian wildlife trade

• Most people who depend on wildlife for their survival:– lack education

– live in remote places with basic communication systems

– unaware of national or international wildlife regulations

• In 1930s excessive hunting of rhinoceros and elephant by Chinese during Dutch occupation

• In 1970s cockatoos, primates & reptiles shipped in large quantities to Europe and USA – 100-200 specimens, 2-3 times per week via Singapore.

• 1978 Indonesia acceded to CITES – 48th nation

Hunting: SulawesiWild meat hunting in North Sulawesi is

predominantly for commercial gain rather than subsistence

• O´Brien & Kinnaird (2000) demonstrated that current harvest levels of large mammals and the mound-nesting Maleo are unsustainable.

• Lee (2000) also concluded that current subsistence hunting levels in Sulawesi for many animal species are unsustainable

Hunting: Sabah (Bennett et al. 2000) • Local wildife populations are being depressed or

locally extirpated by unsustainable hunting levels• Applies equally to protected and unprotected species,

protected & unprotected areas. Reasons:

– increasing human populations in some rural areas– change from traditional hunting technology to guns– increasing trend to sedentary lifestyle– increased access to formerly inaccessible areas

through logging roads and improved river and air transport

Climate change• Now overwhelming scientific evidence for

human-mediated climate change• Warnings have been around for 50 years!• Over last century planet has warmed by

0.8˚ C of which 75% happened in last 30 years• Projections are for further rise of 1°C by

2030; 2-5°C by 2070 • End of last ice age saw 5˚C rise, but that

took 7,000 years, not 100 years!

What does this mean for biodiversity?

• Climate is changing faster than most species can adapt via natural selection

• Landscapes are already heavily modified by humans, so the ability of some species to shift their ranges with the change are severely compromised.

What sort of changes?

• Shifts in geographical range (evidence: yes)

• Timing of breeding (evidence: yes)

• Timing of migration (evidence: yes)

• Changes in movement patterns (even cessation of migration; evidence: yes)

• Changes in abundance due to invasive species

• Prevalence of diseases

Range shifts• Increasing temperatures will cause altitudinal shifts

and contractions in species adapted to high altitudes; also suffer from reduced cloud on mountains and invasion of species from lower altitudes.

Examples:• Extinction of frogs in cloud forests of Monteverde,

Costa Rica• lowland birds shifting upwards in Costa Rica • elevational range shifts in rainforest frogs of wet-

tropical Australia

Photo: © R. Noske

Range shifts in SE Asian birds?

• For mainland SE Asian birds, Peh (2007) compared altitudinal limits given in two field guides, published 25 years apart

• Of 306 common resident habitat-generalised species, 94 species (31%) “shifted” elevational range upwards:– 84 species extended upper limit by average of 400 m asl,

while lower boundary remained same;

– 7 species shifted lower limit upwards

– 3 species shifted both upper and lower limits

• BUT lots of potential biases in this study, so need to be cautious about accepting results and extrapolating them to Indonesia.

Changes in phenology?

• Indonesia has many large-scale migrant birds, mostly species which breed in China & SE Asia, migrating here during northern winter (September to March).

• What will be the effect on these species of increasing temperatures in breeding grounds?– Will they arrive later and depart earlier?

• What will that mean to resident species which are already stressed?

What can we do?

• Protect primary forests!• Reduce corruption, create employment for rural poor

• Protect and manage secondary forests and human-dominated landscapes with reforestation and corridors

• Increase public education

• Enhance sustainability of agriculture and ecotourism

• Protect “Protected species”: reduce illegal wildlife trade (and logging)

• Increased training for park rangers and managers

What can we do?

Electing and supporting the right politicians

• Supporting elected leaders who embrace global incentives and protocols to reduce emissions including C sequestration initiatives

• BUT economic incentives are NOT a substitute for policy

• ……AND policy requires implementation!

What can we do as scientists?

• Science is not enough!

• Forests and species need to be protected now, so that they can be studied by our children

• Biodiversity conservation requires multi-disciplinary approach – scientists must work with sociologists and even economists

• Indonesia has the highest number of NGOs

• Conservation biologists and NGO workers need to communicate findings to government and schools (e.g. CSIRO school programs)

Education and community development are key elements in fighting

Carbon emissions in the future

Evolution of ornithology in Indonesia• Ornithology lags 30+ years behind the west

• Two hallmark publications for Indonesia:

– McKinnon et al.(1993) Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java & Bali (Bahasa Indonesia version 1998)

– Coates & Bishop (1997) Guide to Birds of Wallacea (1997)

• Big survey effort by BirdLife International and amateur birdwatchers during the last 2 decades to document the distribution & status of Indonesian birds.

• One journal: Kukila

• No Bird Atlas to date

Kukila articles by region

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THE NEXT IMPORTANT STEP:An Atlas of Indonesian birds

Aims: • map distribution of all Indonesian bird species• Dramatically increase number of birdwatchers• Attract media publicity, thereby increasing

awareness of biodiversity and habitats• Involve local communities in surveys and

encourage protection of natural resources• Discover new species!

Australia’s Bird Atlasses• The Atlas is Birds Australia's

greatest resources, allowing us to track changes in birds across the country.

• Atlas data form the basis for research such as The State of Australia's Birds Report.

• Since 1998 over 7000 atlassers have amassed over 420,000 surveys, comprising over 7.1 million bird records

ReferencesSodhi, N.S., M.R.C. Posa, T.M. Lee, D. Bickford, L.P. Koh and B.W. Brook

(2009) The state and conservation of Southeast Asian biodiversity. Biodiversity & Conservation, in press; doi 10.1007/s10531-009-9607-5.

Stattersfield, A.J., N.J. Crosby, A.G. Long and D.C. Wege (1998) Endemic Bird Areas of the World. Prioritiy Areas for Biodiversity Conservation, Birdlife Conservation Series no. 7. Birdlife International, Cambridge.

MacKinnon, J. and K. Phillipps (1993) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Peh, K.S.-H. (2007) Potential effects of climate change on elevational distributions of tropical birds in Southeast Asia. Condor 109, 437–441.

Bennett, E.L., Nyaoi, A.J. and Sompud, J. (2000) ‘Saving Borneo’s bacon: the sustainability of hunting in Sarawak and Sabah’, in J.G. Robinson and E.L. Bennett, (eds), Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Rainforests , pp. 305-324, Columbia University Press, New York.