Transcript Biodiversity of Indonesia

Indonesia’s worsening
biodiversity crisis and
possible solutions
Richard A. Noske
School of Environmental & Life Sciences
Charles Darwin University
Darwin, NT, Australia
Southeast Asia has:
• highest proportion
of countryendemic bird (9%)
and mammal
(11%) species
• vascular plants 2nd
highest (25%)
• highest proportion
of threatened
species in all taxa
(except amphibians)
Deforestation rates
SE Asia highest among all tropical regions
• Recently
increasing
• Many
“protected”
forests
being
degraded
by illegal
logging
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
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 land still
forested is
negatively
correlated
with human
population
density
(r = 0.82)
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
Pleistocene
(1.8 My) to
present
Sundaland
Wallacea
AustraloPapua
Sunda-Sahul region during one of many Pleistocene glacial maxima.
Light green areas, over 90 fathoms (except Wallacea)
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
Endemism: low
low
high
high
moderate
450
Endemic
Number of bird species
400
Non-endemic
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Sumatra
Borneo
Java
Bali
Sulawesi
Lesser
Sundas
Resident land birds in Greater Sunda islands & Wallacea
The majority of endemic birds in the
Greater Sundas are montane
No. land % Residents % Endemic % Land Highest
resident which are spp which birds
mt
species
endemic (n) montane (n) montane (m)
Sumatra *
397
Java *
289
Sumatra-Java *# 475
Borneo *
358
Timor †
137
New Guinea** c. 570
5.5 (22)
10.4 (30)
13.3 (63)
10.1 (36)
16.1 (23)
59 (13)
53 (16)
62 (39)
72 (26)
5 (1)
?
26
28
24
9
33
Sources: * MacKinnon & Phillipps (1993); **Pratt (1982); † Mayr (1944), Noske, pers. obs, ** Beehler et al. (1989)
# includes species shared between the two islands
3,805
3,676
4,101
2,963
> 5,000
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
Forest extent (million ha)
40
35
30
25
20
15
Kalimantan
10
5
Sumatra
0
1985
1997
• 51-70% of recently cleared forest was from lowland
plains, with the richest biodiversity
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: Sulawesi
Wild 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 wettropical 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 humandominated 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 multidisciplinary 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
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No. pages
Kukila articles by region
250
200
150
100
50
0
Kukila articles by topic
% total no. articles/ pages
70
Pages
60
No. articles
50
40
30
20
10
0
Annotated
lists
New island
records
Status/
distribution
Behaviour
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
References
Sodhi, 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. 305324, Columbia University Press, New York.