Buton Island, Indonesia's bird paradise almost lost

Scientists assisted by volunteers from around the world have been collecting data on birds found in Buton Island's rain forests as well as the coral reef of the nearby Wakatobi islands. Operation Wallacea, a three-year project funded by HongkongBank, was launched last year to establish wildlife reserves and to help preserve Buton's best rain forests and Wakatobi's coral reef. Pandaya from The Jakarta Post was invited by HongkongBank to observe the bird survey and the condition of the island's rain forests.

BAUBAU, Southeast Sulawesi (JP): The famous exotic wildlife on Buton Island is not easy to preserve.

Environmentalists, scientists and government officials are working hard to preserve the tropical forests that nature lovers warn will eventually vanish due to logging and slash-and-burn farming activities.

Rapid development, the resettlement of poor families from Java, Bali, Madura and other crowded areas has put increasing pressure on the 150-kilometer-long Buton.

A lack of funds and forest rangers has made it difficult for the government to win its war against illegal logging, bird trapping, the overharvesting of bird eggs and the plundering of forest products.

"If the poachers and the greedy bureaucrats get the upper hand in the war for the jungle, nature lovers will, in a matter of years, sing a swan song," was how Wayan Dirgayasa, a researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), put it.

Buton, he fears, will eventually lose the great "whooz-whooz" sounds made by the huge, exotic Hornbill as it flies over the forest. This exotic bird is protected because it is very much sought after by poachers for sale or even for its meat.

Bird enthusiasts may never again be able to watch the female Hornbill lock herself up in a tree crevice until her chicks are mature enough to support themselves. Wayan said he would also miss the spectacular "whoong-whoong" call of the Bay Coucal, a dove-sized bush bird that the inexperienced birder could mistake for a larger, ostrich-size bird due to its whistle.

But in an encouraging gesture, the government is responding to environmentalists' concern about the degradation of Buton.

With financial aid from the HongkongBank and the cooperation of the Wallacea Development Institute and British Ecosurvey Ltd, the government embarked on a three-year ecological survey of Buton and the Wakatobi islands to the east.

Poor coordination

The fertile, mountainous island of Buton is just one example of how the poor coordination of government agencies has resulted in a protected area being used for transmigration purposes.

The remaining forests exist on the sides of rough hills but are relatively safe from nomadic farmers. They are home to a wide range of bird species. Operation Wallacea has found almost 200 species on the fast developing island. As a comparison, the whole of Sulawesi has 380 bird species, 96 of which are not found anywhere else in the world.

Birds endemic to Sulawesi and easily found on Buton are the Sulawesi Serpent Eagle, the Snoring Rail, the Grey-cheecked Green Pigeon, the Pink-headed Imperial Pigeon, the White Imperial Pigeon, the Cuckoo Dove, the Ornate Lorikeet, the Golden Mantled Racquet-tail Parrot, the Sulawesi Hanging Parrot, the Bay Coucal, the Purple-winged Roller, the Sulawesi Hornbill, the Red-knobbed Hornbill, the Ashy Woodpecker and the Sulawesi Triller.

Buton also boasts cuscus, monkeys and Anoa, a small buffalo endemic to Sulawesi.

Slash and burn

The highly diverse range of bird species can easily be seen or heard from several observation points in Air Jatuh near Bau Bau, Wakalambe village and Togomotonu Lake. At the lake alone, scientists reportedly can identify more than 70 species in an observation period of less than two hours.

Increasing population pressure has driven Buton's native semi- nomadic farmers, most of whom are unaccustomed to modern farming techniques, to illegally cut down forests for the agricultural land.

The impact of the slash-and-burn farming is enormous. The farmers usually cut down the trees in low land areas prior to the rainy season. They leave the site denuded after harvest when they think the soil is no longer fertile and move to cut trees somewhere else.

The government's information campaigns aimed at improving public awareness about conservation have fallen on the deaf ears of hungry villagers. Some business interests, armed with official licenses to harvest forests, often collaborate with local people to take more than they are entitled to.

Control is slack because the government only has five forest rangers to safeguard the regency's more than 70,000 hectares. Air rifles are officially banned but officials admit that supervising bird poachers and other hunters is difficult.

Many natives regard the forests as their heritage and feel they have every right to exploit it. Hundreds of hectares of mangroves have been felled to make way for brackish fishponds. Aggravating the problem is the poor coordination among government agencies concerning land use.

"The lack of coordination confuses everyone," said Rafiah, the chief of Buton's suboffice for the conservation of natural resources.

But the increasingly powerful role of environmentalists and LIPI has significantly halted logging activities. In one example, the transmigration office, at LIPI's request, has agreed not to cut down 72 hectares of forest that serve as a water source for Lake Togomotono and will look for an alternative site for transmigrants.

Pressure

LIPI proposes that the lake be developed into an ecotourism bird attraction. Heeding the conservationists' call, the Southeast Sulawesi government has agreed to temporarily "divert" resettlement of poor people from Java and other heavily populated places to Kabaina Island, west of Buton.

Yet the future of conservation on Buton may not be as bright as nature lovers would like.

The local government has earmarked an enormous portion of the jungle for production and "conversion" forests. This policy allows the government to exploit and convert the already dwindling tropical forests into whatever project it deems necessary.

"Increased economic activity is making it impossible to avoid forest clearings for agricultural land and infrastructure facilities," said a worrisome Asep S. Setiawan Adhikerana, a senior ecologist at LIPI's center for research in biology.

One of the solutions proposed to avert the threat of ecological disaster is to develop Buton into an ecotourism site, which experts believe would help sustain the island's natural resources.

Ecotourism is believed to be a good alternative because, in principle, it would not alter the natural condition of the landscape and still generate income.