Biodiversity can tackle poverty'
Biodiversity can tackle poverty'
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
People in Indonesia may be familiar with a traditional drug from
a plant root in Kalimantan called pasak bumi that is said to
enhance sexual performance, but many seemingly prefer to use the
international brand viagra.
Indeed, pasak bumi which is taken from a root of a tree called
Eurychoma Latifolia, contains aphrodisiac, a substance that can
stimulate a man's libido.
The tree only grows in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Malaysia.
"This (preference for foreign drugs) is part of people's lack
of respect for the country's rich biodiversity, which we must
start changing," Liana Bratasida, Deputy State Minister for the
Environment in charge of environmental conservation told the
Jakarta Post.
Liana was speaking on the eve of World Biodiversity Day, which
falls on Thursday.
The 2003 Biodiversity Day carries the theme: Biodiversity and
Poverty Alleviation, Challenges for Sustainable Development.
Indonesia, the second largest biodiversity in the world after
Brazil, is capable of producing natural cosmetics such as
shampoo, lipstick and various staple foods such as rice and corn.
But only a few local cosmetics producers like Martha Tilaar
and Mustika Ratu that have developed natural cosmetics in the
country, Liana said.
Indonesia has also relied too much on rice and failed to
develop other food alternatives. Ironically, Indonesia must now
import rice at about two million tons per year as its rice
production fails to meet domestic demand.
The last time Indonesia reached self sufficiency in rice was
in the early 1980s, which earned then President Soeharto world
acclaim from the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Other commercial items that could be produced here due to the
country's rich biodiversity are handicrafts and other products,
according to Liana.
"It is now crucial to launch a campaign among our people that
the country's biodiversity can be used for various purposes
ranging from food security to medication," she said.
"If people could start the rich biodiversity for their daily
needs or even manage it in large scale production, it could help
lift people out of poverty."
At present, about 40 million people in Indonesia live in
poverty and are unemployed.
Therefore, Liana said, the government would need to formulate
operational regulations to identify species that could be further
processed on a large scale.
The regulations should also administer profit sharing between
the person who discovered the species and developed the product
and regional governments.
Liana admitted that although the government has issued Law No.
5/1990 on conservation of living resources and their ecosystem
and Law No. 5/1994 on the ratification of the UN Convention on
Biological Diversity, the laws were poorly implemented.
Capacity building of human resources should be the next step,
followed by dissemination of information on benefits of
biodiversity, she said.
Incentives and disincentives must also be introduced, such as
the current tax exemption for farmers who sell their crops to
Martha Tilaar cosmetics company.
"We know the effort to encourage people to take advantage of
our biodiversity will not be easy, but we must start doing it,"
Liana said.
However, the effort to promote the use of biodiversity for
people's sake is facing various challenges, including the lack of
awareness about the benefits of biodiversity, huge losses of
biodiversity resulting from illegal logging, land conversion and
pollution.
These activities have caused the country to lose the
equivalent of one species a day and 79 percent of its natural
habitats in the last decade.
"But with the campaign to encourage the use of biodiversity,
we hope people will know the benefits of biodiversity, stop
destroying it and gain from it," she said.