An Open Challenge from Alfred Russel Wallace

KOMPAS/LUKI AULIA

A group of people of the Tobelo Dalam Tribe in the Aketajawe Lolobata National Park area, South Tidore, North Maluku, Monday (26/3/2018). They do a nomadic living to hunt and take forest products such as resin and sago. Even though they are living in the national park area, the Tobelo Dalam people maintain the forest by taking forest products as needed.

No one in the village knew that famed British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace had once lived there. When Kompas visited the village in late March, Kompas did not find any relevant information from locals. Dodinga, the remote village in West Halmahera, North Maluku, is an important piece of 19th century history. It was the birthplace of the theory of evolution, which states that only the strong may survive.

Signs that Dodinga was the place where Wallace was hit by a fever and got the epiphany for natural selection were given by Wallace historian George Baccaloni, who works for the Natural History Museum in London. In an interview in London in March this year, Kompas found that George – who has studied Wallace and his research for 15 years – was a treasure trove of information.

Many have written that Wallace got the epiphany for his natural selection theory when he was hit by a fever in Ternate in February 1858. The idea that was then put into writing as “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type” and was sent to Charles Robert Darwin, another British naturalist who Wallace admired at the time. At the end of the written piece, Wallace wrote the name Ternate followed by the month and the year. The article was later known as the “Ternate Paper”.

Our energy should not be wasted on debates over where exactly Wallace got his inspiration for his natural selection theory. What is important is that Wallace has left a huge legacy on the archipelago. His ideas are believed to have led to the theory of evolution and his descriptions on the archipelago’s diverse wealth of flora and fauna were deemed highly beneficial to the advancement of science. It is unfortunate if we do not continue to develop his ideas.

Unfortunately, no one in Dodinga is even aware of who Alfred Russel Wallace is. No one has ever heard of his name. The oldest resident in the village, Haji Bakir, 86, did not remember any story of a “white man” named Wallace residing in Dodinga.

“I remember Japanese planes dropping bombs here in 1944. However, I do not recall my father or grandfather ever mentioning that name,” Bakir said in an interview in his home.

Wallace wrote about his journeys in Dodinga on page 240 of his book The Malay Archipelago. He wrote: “My first stay was at Dodinga, situated at the head of a deep bay exactly opposite Ternate, and a short distance up a little stream which penetrates a few miles inland. The village is a small one, and is completely shut in by low hills.”

Dodinga is indeed situated on a bay that faces Ternate. It is partially surrounded by hills and there is a little stream running through it, just as Wallace wrote in his book.

Sadly, there are no traces that Wallace actually lived in the village once upon a time. However, the objects that Wallace described in his book, including the ruins of a Portuguese fort and several cannons, can still be found.

Giant laboratory

The Wallacea region, comprising Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and North Maluku, is like a giant nature laboratory with an extraordinary wealth of biodiversity. Since Wallace’s era, western researchers have been in awe of the region.

Head Sapotaceae researcher Peter Wilkie of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Scotland, said that the region had massive biodiversity. Thus far, researchers have found around 10,000 plant species in the region, 1,500 of which are endemic. This does not include mammals and reptiles, of which endemism is around 50 percent.

University of Indonesia professor of biology Jatna Supriatna shared similar data. He even said Sulawesi, the Wallacea region’s largest island, was special in that it was the best natural laboratory to learn about the evolution of living creatures.

“Almost 70 percent of mammals in Sulawesi are endemic. Each of them has a unique trait that cannot be found in other regions,” Jatna said in a recent discussion in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Challenges

The Wallacea region’s image as a paradise is not without threat. Its bountiful forests have been subjected to destruction, encroachment and land clearance to make way for oil palm or cacao plantations. The mushrooming of mines also threatened the population of endemic animals.

“Apart from massive land conversion, awareness of the significance of the region’s biodiversity remains low. If neglected, the ecosystem balance in the region can be seriously threatened,” said Peter, who has participated in several studies in Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Apart from environmental issues, the Wallacea region’s human development index (HDI) is also a cause for concern. Statistical data shows that the national average HDI in 2017 was 70.81.

In the Wallacea region, only South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi has HDI near the national average, namely 70.34 and 71.66, respectively. Other provinces in the region have HDIs below the national average, namely East Nusa Tenggara at 63.73, West Sulawesi at 64.3 and Maluku at 68.19.

It seems that the concerns of Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) former chair Sangkot Marzuki were not baseless. We are having difficulties just to preserve Wallace’s important legacy on the archipelago. Even his old residences no longer exist. What about his ideas?