'Most conservation areas unprotected'

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The majority of 277 animal conservation areas across the country are left unprotected, threatening the sustainability of animals here, a noted ornithologist warns.

Rudiyanto, a senior program officer of Birdlife-Asia, said most of the important conservation areas in West Java were officially protected. These included Ujung Kulon, Gede Pangrango Mountain and Mount Salak Halimun, he said.

However, in many other areas in Java, including Muara Gembong, Tanjung Sedari and the east cost of Surabaya, were left abandoned by officials, he said. One vital spot, the Sahendaruman mountains in the remote Sangir Talaud Islands, North Sulawesi, is as one of the important biodiversity areas in the world.

With 700 hectares of forest, Sahendaruman is a home to a diverse composition of birds, including nearly extinct species and rare birds only found in that area.

Sahendaruman had not yet been declared a conservation area due to its remoteness and a lack of funds, Rudiyanto said.

"It would indeed be difficult to do conservation work there, and it would add to the government's workload. However, there are other ways, even without turning the location into a conservation area," Rudiyanto said on the sidelines of a seminar here during the weekend.

Several environmental groups had succeeded in conserving officially unprotected areas in Indonesia by encouraging community participation, he said.

"(In this way) the government would work only as a facilitator," he said.

The seminar also marked the beginning of the Indonesian Ornithology Association (IdOU) to enhance the study of local birds, which is still limited despite the country's rich biodiversity.

"Foreigners have been coming here to find out about local birds when it should be us who care more about the animals and do more studies on them," ornithologist Mochamad Somadikarta said.