British, RI biologists work on nature reserve

JAKARTA (JP): British and Indonesian biologists are to carry out joint field research in the Lorentz Nature Reserve in the mountains of Irian Jaya.

An assistant to the Minister of Environment, Surna Djajadiningrat, officially launched the project yesterday. Called Lorentz '95, the sponsors of the scheme include British Petroleum.

Team members raised US$45,000 (Rp 102.7 million) from various sources in the UK and Indonesia.

The project, organized by the Jakarta Biological Sciences Club and Cambridge University graduates, will be based in Mapnduma village in the northeastern part of the nature reserve.

Members of the team include biologists from Jayapura's Cenderawasih University and the provincial office of the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Preservation of the Ministry of Forestry.

Commencing next month, the project will last until February.

The biologists will survey plants and animals, including fish. According to project coordinator Navy W.T. Panekenan, the survey, which is the first of its kind to be carried out in the area, will combine scientific fieldwork and the traditional knowledge of the local Nduga people.

Panekenan said in a press release yesterday he hoped the survey's results would support efforts to have the reserve's status raised to that of national park and, ideally, to that of world heritage site.

In 1991 the National Development Planning Board, which issued Indonesia's biodiversity action plan for the 1992 Earth Summit, proposed that the government classify the Lorentz reserve as a national priority for conservation work, Panekenan said.

Due to its remoteness, the reserve is one of the most interesting areas in the world for biologists, he added.

In the first and last biological expedition into the area, which was undertaken by a Dutch group in 1911, several people died as they tried to climb the Trikora Peak of the Jayawijaya mountains. (anr)