Development sends waterfowl to brink

The loss of vast areas of wetland throughout Indonesia and elsewhere due to development projects and human encroachment has also meant the loss of precious species.

Of particular interest are water birds or waterfowl living in marshes, mangrove forests, swamps, estuaries, lakes, dams, paddy fields and coastal areas. They need wetlands to survive.

Indonesia boasts about 184 water bird species from 20 families. Some of them are endangered, including storks, ibises and spoonbills.

Of the world's 20 stork species, five are known to live in the country, namely wilwo/milky storks (wycteria cenerea), bangau tongtong/lesser adjustants (leptoptilos javanicus), bangau hutan rawa/storm storks (ciconia stromi), sindang lawe/woolly-necked storks (ciconia epicospus) and wera/black-necked storks (ephippiorrhynchus asiaticus).

Five of 26 ibis species can be found in Indonesian wetlands. They are bera/white ibises (threskiornis molucca), black-headed ibises (threskiornis melanocephalus), roko-roko/glossy ibises (plegadis falcinellus), white-shouldered ibises (pseudibis davisoni) and cum bera/straw-necked ibises (threskiornis spinicollis).

There are no more than a total of 2,000 woolly-necked storks and lesser adjustants on the islands of Java, Bali and Flores. They also spread over Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Thailand. With around 80,000 white ibises in the world, their whereabouts in Indonesia are not yet certain.

Over 45,000 of these protected birds are estimated to exist in southern Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). White-shouldered and straw- necked ibises, with unknown population sizes, are believed to be endangered.

The country's only paruh sendok raja/royal spoonbills (platatea regia) also face the same fate. With only six such species in the world, their locations are not fixed either. In the 1970s they were known to be distributed in Maluku, Nusa Tenggara, Java and on Rambut islet in the Java Sea. In July 1988, a group of 210 royal spoonbills was discovered in Rawa Cuwoon, Kimaan island, Irian Jaya.

Due to their rarity, the government has declared three species protected, namely milky storks, lesser adjustants and woolly- necked storks. Government Regulation No.7/1999 on protected vegetation and wildlife also lists three other ibis species: the black-headed, white-shouldered and glossy ibises.

These birds are categorized in "Bird to Watch 2" published by IUCN (International Union for Conservation and Natural Resources) as endangered. The book, listing the world's threatened birds, also registers two stork species (wilwo and tongtong) in the vulnerable category.

Main threats include destruction of their habitat or conversion of wetlands, hunting and trade, as well as the use of pesticides in paddy fields where they live.

"Water birds highly depend on their habitat, particularly marshy forests, riverbank woodlands and mangrove swamps," said M. Khazali, an environment activist of Wetlands International- Indonesian Program.

The loss of mangrove swamp forests, especially in Java and Sumatra, are mostly caused by fish or shrimp pond development. About 40 percent of the forests in Indonesia have disappeared in the last 20 years, leaving only 3.5 million hectares.

Only some 65 percent of Sumatra's brackish-water marshy forests and peat areas are left, of which primary forests constitute just 6.3 percent. Storks, ibises and spoonbills badly need trees in these forests for their nesting, resting, protection from predators and part of their diet.

Hunting impacts on the conservation of waterfowl, which are generally killed or snared for consumption or domestication.

"Several years back, about a million water birds like storks were hunted annually in Java's northern coasts," Wetlands International - Indonesian Program program director Dibjo Sartono said.

"Their meat was sold and consumed by local people," he said, adding that the activity threatened the wetland ecosystem and the water birds.

A survey in Indramayu, West Java, in 1990 noted that some 90 milky storks were hunted down and cooked for food. In 1989 only around 6,000 of the birds existed, of which 97 percent (5,900) were found to exist in Indonesia in 1989.

Pesticide used in paddy fields and ponds has also affected the population of water birds. The toxic substance, ingested by the birds through the water and fish they consume, causes their egg shells to become thinner, reducing both the chances that the egg hatches and the overall population. Inadequate data and information on their numbers and behavior also hampers conservation. --Bambang Parlupi