Sustainable benefits: New road to conservation<\/p>\n
Harry Surjadi, Contributor, Jayapura, Papua<\/p>\n
There has been a tug-of-war in understanding how people can make
\nuse of forest resources without harming the environment.<\/p>\n
Many believe this is fine as long as people are able to make
\nuse of the forest wisely and rejuvenate them in return, while
\nothers strongly oppose the forests being \"touched\" when it is
\nsupposed to be preserved.<\/p>\n
Some people in Papua, however, have proved that forest is more
\nthan a source of wood, and that other products from forests can
\nbenefit those who live nearby.<\/p>\n
The forests of Indonesia have been exploited at a massive
\nscale since the 1960s by concessionaires in an unsustainable
\nmanner.<\/p>\n
According to the Ministry of Forestry, more than two million
\nhectares of forest are stripped each year, and destructive
\nlogging and illegal logging have degraded 43 million hectares.<\/p>\n
The World Bank estimates that Sumatran lowland forests will
\nvanish in less than five years and Kalimantan lowland forests
\nwill also be gone in less than 10 years, if the government does
\nnot take any measures to stop unsustainable forest management.<\/p>\n
Unlike Sumatra, Kalimantan or Java, Papua is still richly
\ncovered with pristine primary forests, which accounts for nearly
\n80 percent of the island's total area, even though illegal
\nlogging has begun to threaten its virgin forests.<\/p>\n
Conservation International has designated New Guinea Island --
\ncomprising Papua and the neighboring state of Papua New Guinea --
\nas a wilderness area. The island is the most species-rich on
\nearth, with significantly more biodiversity than Kalimantan,
\nMadagascar, Sumatra or Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
Recent estimates of the vascular plant richness of New Guinea
\nrange from 15,000 to 25,000 species, with endemism estimated at
\n9,750 to 10,500 species.<\/p>\n
It also has at least 164 species of mammals, 329 reptiles and
\namphibians, 650 birds, 250 freshwater fish and 1,200 marine fish,
\n150,000 insects, and hundreds of freshwater and marine
\ninvertebrates.<\/p>\n
In 2000, a Food and Agriculture Organization survey discovered
\n2,770 types of rare orchids, the major and most fascinating
\nspecies of colorful flora in New Guinea forests.<\/p>\n
The major debate over conservation areas concerns the balance
\nbetween leaving areas in their natural or near natural state, and
\ndeveloping and exploiting them. Should a virgin forest be left in
\nits original state or harvested for wood and the land converted
\nto farms?<\/p>\n
The Fifth World Parks Congress 2003, a once-in-a-decade
\nconference, was themed \"Benefits beyond boundaries\". The theme
\nembodied the congress' focus on addressing people's needs and
\nproviding a stream of economic, political and environmental
\nbenefits to societies worldwide and its complementary concept:
\nWithout an effective network of protected areas, all benefits --
\nsuch as clean air and water, fertile land, inspiring landscapes
\nand unique wildlife -- would be lost.<\/p>\n
The congress stressed that in order to retain all benefits,
\nprotected area planners needed to begin thinking outside the box
\n-- that conservation areas should produce benefits beyond their
\nphysical or virtual boundaries.<\/p>\n
The fences that have kept people out of conservation areas are
\nnot the only boundaries discussed at the congress, and marked a
\nturning point for protected areas and their management.<\/p>\n
The congress recognized that protected areas cannot exist in
\nisolation from the surrounding land and sea; nor can they be
\nmanaged without regard to the communities and economic activities
\nwithin and around them.<\/p>\n
The congress affirmed the immense value of protected areas to
\nsociety, in the present and in the future, and participants
\ncommitted themselves to working with a variety of partners to
\ndevelop a broader agenda for protected areas in the future.<\/p>\n
The action plan that resulted, the Durban Action Plan, is
\nbased on the fundamental concept that activities in protected
\nareas contribute to the eradication of poverty and do not
\nexacerbate it.<\/p>\n
Protected areas are thus providers of benefits beyond
\nboundaries -- beyond boundaries on a map, beyond those of nation-
\nstates, across societies, gender and even generations -- and
\nurges a change in our way of thinking.<\/p>\n
\"It's not just a protected area agency taking care of a
\nconservation area; it's also people who live in the cities,
\ncorporations, the tourism sector and even the military,\" said
\nJeff McNeely, a well-known scientist who attended the congress.<\/p>\n
Conservation areas can no longer exist as oases of untouched
\nwilderness, as social and environmental factors beyond the
\ncontrol of conservation area managers are affecting them in ways
\nthat cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n
The market does not support a system of protected or
\nconservation areas, hence nations, through their various levels
\nof government, must provide environmental protection as a public
\nservice in the same manner that they provide health, education,
\ndefense and judicial services. Failure to provide these public
\nservices impoverishes the quality of life for individuals and
\nindeed, for entire nations -- and environmental protection should
\nbe no different, as is written in the guidelines for conservation
\narea management.<\/p>\n
The Wanggai and Saway families, for example, have proved that
\na forest conservation area does not merely contain wood, and such
\nareas can also benefit local economies. Harvesting orchids from
\nforests is one way to benefit from them in a sustainable manner.<\/p>\n
More people like the Wanggai and Saway families wish to
\nbenefit from the sustainable harvest of non-timber forest
\nproducts, such as orchids and other ornamental plants.<\/p>\n
Sustainable benefits are key to the new conservation paradigm,
\nthrough which forests, especially conservation areas, can benefit
\nnot only timber or mining companies, but all peoples beyond their
\nboundaries.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sustainable-benefits-new-road-to-conservation-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}