Internet used to preserve nature

Internet used to preserve nature

By Tom Wright

JAKARTA (Reuter): An Indonesian nature reserve on the island
of Java is the site of an unlikely partnership between
conservation groups and two of the world's largest computer
companies.

Throughout this month environmentalists from four Asian
countries are being trained at the Cibodas nature reserve in how
to apply the latest computer technology in their fight to protect
ecological biodiversity.

Cibodas, about 50 km (30 miles) of Jakarta, is one of 25
biosphere reserves that the United Nations Education, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set up across Asia, Latin
America and Africa to pioneer this scheme.

"There have already been two biosphere reserve training
programs in Central and South America, and Africa is still to
come," Martha Klein, an environmental officer at UNESCO in
Jakarta, told Reuters.

Klein said the computer systems being introduced at Cibodas
will give reserve managers access to wide biological and social
data which will help them maintain a balance between conserving
biodiversity and encouraging sustainable use of resources by
local communities.

The introduction of the Internet will also have a large role
to play in the future management of the reserves, Gordon Moore,
chairman of Intel Corp said in a statement.

"Bringing the power of the personal computer into developing
countries allows researchers to...quickly share information with
colleagues around the world," Moore said.

Klein said there are currently more than 335 biosphere
reserves in 85 countries across the globe, all of which UNESCO
hopes will eventually come on-line.

"We want to create a global network of exchange of
experience," she said.

Asian reserve managers from Mongolia, Thailand, Philippines
and Indonesia are being trained at Cibodas. UNESCO also runs two
projects in China and one in Sri Lanka, Klein said.

Conservation International, a U.S.-based environmental group,
is training Asian reserve staff to use the latest computer
software in the management of their environmental projects.

"This is conservation at work in today's high-tech world,"
Silvio Olivieri, vice president of Conservation International,
said in a statement.

"Getting the right kind of equipment and technology to people
in developing nations is a tremendous help in confronting a
multitude of rapidly changing environmental challenges," he said.

Klein said UNESCO set up biosphere reserves in the late 1960s
as a way of maintaining healthy ecological systems faced by a
burgeoning developing world population.

"Fencing off a conservation area like an island just doesn't
work. We have to open it up to people," she said.

UNESCO says the reserves in developing countries, which
contain the highest concentration of biodiversity, are under
threat without the technical capacity for effective management.

"Personal computers (are) powerful tools to gather data,
analyse it and make the best decisions needed for the management
of these reserves," it said in a recent report.