Ecosystems Growing Increasingly Imbalanced

KOMPAS/VINA OKTAVIA

An elephant named Sugeng is picking up water in a drinking tub built by WWF-Indonesia, at the Way Kambas National Park Elephant Training Center on Friday (6/4).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS -- Development that puts too much emphasis on economic interests has led to environmental disasters throughout the world. Consequently, animal populations are declining and human life is at risk.

The Earth’s natural environment has suffered from degradations. Man’s greed, as reflected in development programs that put too much emphasis on economic interests, is seen as the main cause. This is despite nature having an important role in ensuring global prosperity and driving the global economy. A destroyed ecosystem may never recover.

The 2018 Living Planet Report issued by global conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in late October wrote that mankind’s activities are threatening the conditions of wildlife, forests, seas, rivers and the climate. Populations of vertebrates, including birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians, have declined by 60 percent in the last 40 years.

The report includes one of the latest findings of the Living Planet Index (LPI), which traces the populations of 16,704 groups of vertebrates in 4,005 species from 1970 to 2014. Of these, 44 species are in Indonesia.

“The main threat that leads to declining population of species is mankind’s activities, including the exploitation of habitats to open new land and the excessive exploitation of wildlife,” WWF Indonesia conservation program director Lukas Laksono Adhyakso said in Jakarta on Friday (16/11/2018).

The 2018 Living Planet Report is WWF’s 12th publication. The biennial report is based on analysis of several indicators of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Species Habitat Index (SHI), the IUCN’s Red List Index (RLI), the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) and the Planetary Boundaries and Ecological Footprint.

The report also shows that the condition of wildlife habitats and natural resources are also declining. In the past 50 years, 20 percent of the Amazon ecosystem has disappeared. In the past 30 years, half of the coral reefs in the Earth’s shallow waters have disappeared. Freshwater populations have also decreased by 83 percent.

Indonesian Environmental Scholars Association chair Jatna Supriatna, who also serves as the director of the University of Indonesia’s Institute for Sustainable Earth and Resources, said that conditions in Indonesia were not much better than that of the globe overall. Despite the lack of comprehensive data on conditions in Indonesia, the country is famed for its biodiversity.

At least 10 percent of the world’s flowering plants, 15 percent of insects, 25 percent of fish, 16 percent of amphibians and reptiles, 17 percent of birds and 12 percent of mammals are found in Indonesia.

“Without radical changes to human consuming patterns, clearly the Earth is at risk. If the Earth is at risk, then humans will be at risk, too,” Jatna said.

Sustainable economy

A practical solution, Jatna said, would be the development of the bioeconomy, which is the inclusion of sustainable economics in the management of natural resources in the hope of seeking optimal profits. For instance, the government can maximize the management of national parks as alternative tourist destinations. Furthermore, local communities should be engaged in natural conservation initiatives so that they can also reap economic benefits from them.

The 2018 Living Planet Report also states that natural resources provide support worth US$125 trillion every year. Our natural environment ensures a proper and continuous supply of clean air, clean water, food, energy, medicines and other necessities.

The extinction of a single population can disrupt an entire ecosystem. Pollinators, for example, are responsible for the production of a third of all available food worldwide. Birds, bats and reptiles are important in controlling the population of disease-spreading mosquitoes.

“The fate of a single animal population can have wide-ranging consequence on the continuation of life on Earth, especially for humans,” Lukas said.

The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Risks Report cites biodiversity loss and environmental destruction as one of the top 10 threats to the economy in 2018.

Statistics from 2017 from the Directorate General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation shows that 236 protected species in Indonesia are endangered. These include Sumatran tigers and elephants, Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses, as well as orangutans in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Indonesian Biological Consortium (Kobi) chair Budi Setiadi Daryono says humans are heavily dependent on nature and yet they make the greatest contribution to environmental destruction. The functional degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity are the results of declining habitats, excessive exploitation, climate change and population.

“Changes in consumption are necessary to avoid any excess, to support sustainable funding and to boost the government’s strong commitment,” Budi said.

WWF Indonesia program manager Barano Sulistyawan said it was urgent for Indonesia to establish a biodiversity index. Thus far, the country has yet to produce an exact record of the conditions and populations of its own biodiversity. Without a biodiversity index, conservation efforts will not be measurable and whatever results they achieve may not be optimal.

“We have pushed the [National Development Planning Agency] to start formulating a biodiversity index for Indonesia. Hopefully, there will be an acceleration. We have the necessary resources,” Barano said. (TAN)