Category Archives: conservation
Gajah di dunianya yang kecil
Konflik antara satwa dengan manusia tidak terelakkan juga terjadi pada gajah. Permasalahan perebutan wilayah antara gajah dan manusia juga belum berakhir. Manusia mengklaim banyaknya kerusakan yang ditimbulkan oleh gajah. Di India menurut Prof.Raman Sukumar terjadi beberapa kasus gajah-gajah yang memakan tanaman pertanian seperti jagung dan padi. Karena merasa dirugikan oleh perilakunya, maka gajah-gajah banyak diburu untuk dibunuh, sehingga jumlahnya semakin berkurang.
Dalam seminar yang diselenggarakan Fahutan IPB dengan Peka Indonesia, beliau membeberkan beberapa hasil penelitiannya, diantaranya wilayah jelajah gajah yang semakin meluas, untuk menemukan makanan. Kawanan gajah yang jumlahnya semakin menurun, harus berjalan bermil-mil lebih jauh dibandingkan masa-masa sebelumnya. Hal ini karena wilayah hutan yang semakin sempit, tidak mencukupi kebutuhan makan mereka.
Burung dan Tumbuhan Obat di pertemuan JPL
Presentasi Adi Kristanto yang berjudul “Peranan ruang terbuka hijau bagi perkembangan burung di Jakarta” menuntut kepedulian audiens. Mewakili Bird Watch Community ia mengatakan bahwa ruang terbuka hijau kota Jakarta yang menjadi tempat tinggal, singgah dan mencari makan bagi berbagai jenis burung masih berada di bawah luas ideal yang seharusnya 30% dari total luas
wilayah Jakarta. Ruang terbuka Hijau seperti Monas, Hutan di Muara Angke dan wilayah hijau di sekitar condet dan Jakarta Selatan adalah beberapa yang tersisa untuk burung-burung.
Hewan yang diminati untuk dipelihara karena keunikan bulu, suara atau penampilannya ini semakin berkurang jenisnya. Berdasarkan data pengamatan dari Bird Watch Community, di wilayah pesisir Jakarta sedikitnya 6 jenis burung terancam punah. Jumlah ini akan terus bertambah apabila tidak ada tindakan yang nyata untuk mengatasi permasalahan ini.
Sekelumit Cerita Katak Pohon
Keanekaragaman dan perilaku katak pohon di Jawa sangat menarik untuk diamati. Berdasarkan penelusuran data Global Amphibian Assessment, Indonesia diperkirakan memiliki 102 species katak pohon .Sejarah hidup katak pohon ini dipaparkan dengan apik oleh Dr. Mirza D Kusrini di Seminar Rutin Yayasan Peka Indonesia, Kamis 14 Mei 2009 Katak pohon adalah katak yang menghabiskan sebagian besar hidupnya di pohon (arboreal). Katak jenis ini umumnya mempunyai disk yang membesar pada bagian ujung jari. Dengan ini, katak mampu menempel erat di pohon, daun ataupun di tubuh pasangannya dalam proses kawin. Katak pohon hijau (Rhacophorus Reindarwardtii) paling populer untuk dijadikan peliharaan bahkan sampai di ekspor ke luar negeri.
Siapa Pun Presidennya, Hutan Harus Lestari
JAKARTA — Siapa pun presidennya, hutan Indonesia harus lestari. Itulah salah satu hal yang dibahas dalam Seminar Nasional Pemberantasan Penebangan Liar dalam Era Pemerintahan SBY-JK di Jakarta, Selasa (26/5).
Berdasarkan foto satelit, tercatat deforestasi pada 2002-2003 seluas 2,3 juta hektar. Namun, pada 2006-2007 luas deforestasi berkurang menjadi 1,2 juta hektar. “Pencapaian ini karena percepatan penanganan illegal logging berdasarkan Instruksi Presiden No 4 Tahun 2005 mengenai pemberantasan penebangan kayu secara ilegal,” kata Andi Amir Husry, Ketua Tim Koordinasi, Monitoring, dan Evaluasi (Kormonev) Pemberantasan Penebangan Kayu secara Ilegal saat ditemui sebelum seminar.
Seminar yang dihadiri oleh perwakilan Menteri Kehutanan, Kapolri, ICW, Jaksa Agung, dan Hakim Agung ini diselenggarakan untuk mengevaluasi penerapan Inpres No 4/2005 dan memberikan rekomendasi terhadap pemerintahan baru dalam menyikapi penebangan kayu secara ilegal. Menurut Andi, hutan Indonesia diperuntukkan sebesar-besarnya bagi kemakmuran rakyat. “Artinya, bagaimana memanfaatkan hutan untuk kepentingan masyarakat sekitar hutan dan tetap menjaga kelestarian,” ungkap Andi.
Indonesia Jadi Penghancur Hutan Terbesar
JAKARTA — Sampai detik ini Indonesia masih menjadi negara penghancur hutan terbesar di dunia. Sebanyak 64 persen sampai 83 persen kayu hasil tebangan di negeri ini berstatus illegal logging.
“Data lain yang memprihatinkan adalah dari semua kasus illegal logging yang berhasil diinvestigasi, hanya kurang dari 5 persen yang masuk ke pengadilan,” kata Laode Syarif, Chief of Cluster Security and Justice Kemitraan dalam Seminar Nasional Pemberantasan Penebangan Liar dalam Era Pemerintah SBY-JK di Jakarta, Selasa (26/5).
Fakta di atas terkait tentang bagaimana kinerja pemerintahan SBY-JK soal komitmen penanganan kejahatan hutan. Berdasarkan data dari EC-Indonesia FLEGT Support Project tentang kasus yang terjerat Inpres Nomor 4 Tahun 2005 mengenai pemberantasan penebangan kayu secara ilegal, tercatat pada 2007 terdapat 574 kasus kejahatan hutan. Dari kasus tersebut 103 kasus dalam proses penyelidikan, 437 kasus telah P-21 atau dalam proses penuntutan, dan 34 kasus telah divonis di pengadilan.
Dua Gajah Binaan KSDA Bengkulu Mati Tertembak
Menteri Tenaga Kerja dan Transmigrasi Erman Suparno berencana menjadikan Kebun Raya Kebun B inatang Gembira Loka dan sungai-sungai di Yogyakarta sebagai pilot project konservasi lingkungan yang berimbas pada penyerapan tenaga kerja atau green job.
“Saya yang juga menjabat sebagai Ketua Umum Yayasan Air Kehidupan Indonesia, mau mencoba Yogyakarta sebagai pilot project konservasi sungai-sungai. Sumber daya alam Indonesia itu sebenarnya kalau di manajemen dengan baik, mulai dari pertanian, kehutanan, kelautan, dirgantara, mampu membuat republik ini makmur,” ujar Erman usai bertemu dengan pengelola Gembira Loka, Rabu (1/4).
Menurut Erman potensi Kebun Raya Kebun Binatang (KRKB) Gembira Loka yang dilalui oleh Sungai Gajah Wong sangat tepat untuk daerah konservasi, selain pariwisata dan pendidikan. Apalagi, selama ini KRKB Gembira Loka berfungsi sebagai paru-paru Kota Yogyakarta. Pepohonan yang berada pada lahan seluas sekitar 20 hektar itu juga mampu mengendalikan perubahan temperatur dan menyaring polusi yang terjadi akibat dampak perkembangan kota.
Nature Conservation for Sustainable Life
The benefits provided by natural ecosystems are both widely recognized and poorly understood. What is increasingly clear, however, is that natural ecosystems are under enormous pressure around the world from growing demand place on them by human economic. Growth of human populations and prosperity translate into increased of conversion of natural ecosystem to intensive agricultural, industrial or residential use, but also into increased demand for ecosystem inputs such as fresh water, fiber, soil fertility, as well as increased pressure on capacity of natural ecosystem to assimilate our waste, including air and water pollution as well as solid waste. In short, we are asking more and more from natural ecosystems even we reduce their capacity to meet our need.
It is also the fact, that poverty is major problem in developing world. Responding the poverty issues as well as the need and aspiration of growing population is important for societal goal. Recognising that the most poverty is rural, as are most protected and conservation areas, a relationship between poverty and environmental sustainability is an intimate one. The primary goal of most protected areas is to conserve biological diversity and provide ecosystem services, not to reduce poverty. However, examination of the linkages between environmental conservation efforts and poverty in developing countries has become practical and ethical necessity. Practical, because to survive, conservation areas in poorest nations must be seen as a land-use option that contributes as possitively to sustainable development as other types of land use. And ethical, because human rights and aspirations need to be incorporated into natural and global conservation strategies, if social justice is to be realised. The community-based environmental conservation project is based on idea that if conservation and development can be simultaneusly achieved, then interests of both could be served. The community-based environmental conservation is also practical model of sustainable development. The increasing global concerns on poverty reduction such as Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the practical model of sustainable development is not only important but also urgent. The translation of framework of MDGs from global principle to local practical is key for achieving significants global effort to reduce poverty, especially in developing world.
Indonesia and Islands
It is not too much to say that when we have mastered the difficulties presented by the peculiarities of island life we shall find it comparatively easy to deal with the more complex and less clearly defined problems of continental distribution (Wallace, 1902) These words taken from Alfred Russell Wallaces Island Life encapsulate an over-aching idea that could be termed the central paradigm of island biogeography. It is that islands, being discrete, internally quantifiable, numerous, and varied entities, provide us with a suite of natural laboratories, from which the discerning natural scientist can make a selection that simplifies the complexity of the natural world, enabling theories of general importance to be developed and tested (Whittaker, 2007).
The scarcity of kinds-the richness in endemic forms in particular classes or section of classes, – the absence of whole group, as of batrachians, and of terrestrial mammals notwithstanding the presence of aerial bats, – the single proportions of certain orders of plants, – herbaceous forms having developed into trees,- seem to me to accord better with the view of occasional means of transport having been largely efficient in the long course of time, than with the view of all our oceanic islands having been formerly connected by contiguous land with the nearest continent (Darwin, 1859).In terms of biodiversity, the issue is clearer: islands boast a truly unique assemblage of life. Species become island dwellers either by drifting on islands, like castaways, as they break off from larger landmasses (in the case of continental islands) or by dispersing across the ocean to islands newly emerged from the ocean floor (oceanic islands). Henceforth they are confined to small, isolated areas located some distance from other large landmasses. Over time, this isolation exerts unique evolutionary forces that result in the development of a distinct genetic reservoir and the emergence of highly specialized species with entirely new characteristics and the occurrence of different adaptations. The legacy of a unique evolutionary history, many island species are endemic found nowhere else on Earth. Islands harbour higher concentrations of endemic species than do continents, and the number and proportion of endemics rises with increasing isolation, island size and topographic variety. It has often been remarked that islands make a contribution to global biodiversity that is out of proportion to their land area. In this sense, they can be thought of collectively as biodiversity hot spots, containing some of the richest reservoirs of plants and animals on Earth (CBD, 2007) Indonesia has already lost some of its biodiversity through human activity, and forests have become fragmented through expansion of agriculture and housing. Research has been conducted into the effects of fragmentation on biodiversity using insects as an indicator (Hunter 2000; Gonzalez 2000). PEKA Indonesia has been conducting research on Island Biogeography since 2003, in Thousand Island Sanctuary (Northern Sea of Jakarta Bay), Java. The Thousand Island Sanctuary is proposed as a research location because it represents tropical islands with varying land use patterns. Several islands of the Sanctuary have been dramatically modified and used for human habitation and tourism, which brings new threats for many of their native species (some of which may be endemic). Previous surveys indicated that human activities have aided the distribution of invasive alien ant species Anoplolepis gracilipes and Solenopsis geminata in several small islands of Kepulauan Seribu Sanctuary, which can be a threat to the endemic local ant populations (Rizali, 2006).The Highlights of PEKA Indonesia research on Island Biogeography: 1. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Species Richness and Structure of Ant Communities in Small Tropical Islands: Effect of Area, Island isolation, Land Use, and presence of Boat Docks. (Akhmad Rizali) This research was conducted to study species richness and community structure of ant on small island. Eighteen islands differing in area, isolation from the mainland, land use history, and the presence of boat docks were selected to study these effects on species richness and the stucture of ant communites. Island characteristics were measured with geographical information system (GIS). Ant sampling was conducted using intensive collecting in 5m x 5m plots established in representative habitats. Species accumulation curves in combination with techniques extrapolating the total expected species richness were used to estimate the completeness of species inventories. Non-metric multidimentional scaling analysis (MDS) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to study relationship between ant and island characteristics. Over 48 species from subfamilies and 28 genera were recorded from all islands. While the species accumulation curve from all islands reached saturation, the curves for some islands indicated that still not all species were recorded by the sampling. MDS showed that island characteristic tend to influence species composition. Similarly, based on CCA, the occurrence of certain species was highly related to island characteristics. A total of 8 cryptic and 3 exotic invasive species were recorded. Most of these are widespread within the archipelago. The presence of nearly all cryptic species was strongly influenced by island isolation and land use. These species have a high potential as indicators for land use change. Furthermore, the occurrence of invasive ant species was related to the occurrence of docks, and their presence seemed ta have impact to ant diversity on the islands. Human-induces habitat modification on islands were identified as the main factor for the occurrence and distribution of tramp species within Seribu islands. Intensive and varied collecting methods are effective for characterizing ant species richness on islands. Ant diversity in Seribu Islands was affected by several island characteristics including area, isolation, land use, and the occurrence of docks on islands. Combination of all island characteristics were highly related to ant diversity in Seribu Islands. Highly disturbed habitats on islands in Seribu Islands made certain species disappear 2. ON-GOING RESEARCH Invasive Alien Ants in Small Island of Kepulauan Seribu Sanctuary- Indonesia: Its Possible Impact Toward Local Ant Communities. (Akhmad Rizali) Alien invasive ant species are major threats to indigene and endemic ant species for small islands such as in Seribu Islands. The main objective of this project is to quantify to which extent invasive ant populations is affecting native ant communities that may be endangered and endemic. The study will clarify how much species are native and endemic, and how much are introduced and invasive. Ecological observation will be conducted in three different islands representing three conditions: highly populated island, unique bird island, and unexplored island. Ants will be surveyed by pitfall traps and intensive collecting method in plots. All information gained from the project will be used to develop conservation strategies of local species in the protected area. 3. POTENTIAL RESEARCH STUDY OF ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE OF BEETLE DIVERSITY IN TROPICAL ISLANDS IN THE FACE OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES: A CASE STUDY FROM THOUSAND ISLANDS SANCTUARY INDONESIA (Shinta Puspitasari) The Thousand Island Sanctuary, North Coast Jakarta Bay, is proposed as a research location because it represents tropical islands with varying land use patterns. Diversity of invertebrate communities will be analysed in a set of different islands, which are characterized by differing degrees of anthropogenic influence. Pitfall and light traps as well as sweep netting will be used to generate samples of ground beetles and other suitable arthropod taxa to be decided on in the first week of sampling (i.e. taxa which are commonly encountered in large numbers and comparatively easy to identify). These samples will be a basis for the analysis how anthropogenic disturbance as well as island size and isolation influence the diversity and composition of arthropod communities. In addition, a basic set of environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, and vegetation structures) will be recorded during the sampling to analyze potential links between these factors and arthropod species compositions.
Conservation of Flora and Fauna
“CONSERVATION OF FLORA AND FAUNA IN THE MIDDLE OF
GLOBAL WARMING AND CHANGING CLIMATE”
Indonesian Miniature Garden, Jakarta- Indonesia , 22nd of January 2008
Global warming and climate change has become a global issues and concern within the regional and international levels. In the context of national scope, this issues had grew stronger after Indonesia had been selected to become host of the 13th Conference of the Party to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 13). The venue took place in Denpasar, Bali. Our earth has already experienced the phenomena of global warming and climate change which leads to hazardous climate events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released numbers of reserch which has proved that the earth are warming and climate are changing. The IPCC is an independent scientific body under the UNFCCC.
The phenomena of hazardous climate events has an enormous impact to the environment and human livelihood. Global warming and unpattern climate changes threatened farming for food security, clean water availability, human and ecosystem health. Global warming also threatened the existence of small island nations because of the rising of sea level. Eventhough climate changes has become global issue, but there are still many communities around the world who has not known and understand what is global warming and climate changes. Many of us living in developing countries are limited to information on global warming and climate changes. For many developing countries like Indonesia, efforts to develop public awareness on global warming and climate changes are urgently needed in order to enhance public understanding on the issues. In the efforts of spreading awareness on global warming and climate change, Peka Indonesia collaborating with IISES and TMII conducted one day seminar on global warming and climate change. The seminar was conducted on January 22nd 2007 in Indonesian Miniature Garden, Jakarta with seminar theme Conservation of Flora and Fauna in the middle of changing climate and global warming The aim of this one day seminar is to spread out informations on global warming and climate change to the public especially for the staffs of Indonesian Miniature Garden. Participants will received informations on the effect of global warming to the existence of biodiversity, how we can contribute to minimize carbon emission, and how we can actively involve in the conservation of our nature environment. Thus we can minimize the effects of global warming. On this one day seminar, we invited Dr. Sony Keraf (former minister of environment) as a key note speaker. Dr Keraf gave presentation on the science of global warming and climate change and efforts initiate by countries in the world to adapt to climate change. We also invited 5 other speaker to give prensentation on this seminar, they are, Dr. Suryo Wiyon (Department of Agriculture, IPB), Kuswandono (Gede Pangrango National Park), Dr. Rosicon Ubaidilah (Indonesian Institute of Science), and Arif (Pelangi Foundation). These five speaker gave presentations on the topic of global warming and its effect to the earth environment, effect of global warming to flora and fauna, socializing the result of UNFCCC Bali 2007, and opportunity for public involvement to reduce the effect of global warming. The seminar was attended by 150 participant, mostly from staffs of Indonesian Miniature Garden and several from public in general. We sees that forum-forum seminar like this are still needed in order to spread out the information on global warming and climate change. We envision that through good understanding, the public will increase their awareness toward global warming and will initiate an action to contribute on reducing carbon emission, thus minimalizing the hazardous effects of global warming and climate change.
