While China's pollution has garnered much attention, we should be just as concerned about environmental degradation in Indonesia-and not just because of its big human population (237 million and growing). Indonesia is the second-richest country in the world in terms of terrestrial biodiversity, after Brazil, and first in terms of marine biodiversity. Though covering only 1.3 percent of the earth's land surface, Indonesia's forests represent 10 percent of all the world's tropical forest cover and are home to 20 percent of all the world's species of flora and fauna, 17 percent of the world's bird species, and more than 25 percent of the world's fish species. Just ten hectares in the Indonesian island of Borneo contains more different tree species than are found in all of North America-not to mention a raft of plants, insects, and animals that don't exist anywhere else on earth. In fact, little Borneo, with less than 1 percent of the earth's land surface, reportedly holds 6 percent of the world's total bird species, mammal species, and flowering plant species. The whole Caribbean has only about one-tenth the marine biodiversity of Indonesia, which sits at the confluence of the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean, and is nourished by all three.
But much of this biodiversity in Indonesia is now under threat. Shortly after I arrived in Jakarta, my friend Alfred Nakatsuma, who runs the biodiversity preservation programs for the United States Agency for International Development in Indonesia, remarked to me that Indonesia had been entered into Guinness World Records for having the fastest rate of deforestation in the world. Indonesia is now losing tropical forests the size of Maryland every year, and the carbon released by the cutting and clearing of all these trees-much of it done illegally-has made Indonesia the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, after the United States and China. Brazil is number four for the same reason. We tend to think of the climate issue as purely an energy problem-how do we reduce the number of gasoline cars we drive and the amount of coal we burn? But in Indonesia, climate is a forest problem. We think of the problem as being too many cars. They think of it as being too few trees. More than 70 percent of CO2 emissions from Indonesia come from the cutting and clearing of forests. According to Conservation International, a forest area the size of three hundred soccer fields is cut down in Indonesia every hour. Illegal logging from national forests costs the Indonesian government $3 billion in lost state revenues each year, but even what is legal involves extensive deforestation as Indonesia tries to grow its economy by, understandably, selling forest products.
Unfortunately, the trouble doesn't stop at the water's edge. The waters around the 17,000 islands of the Indonesian archipelago hold 14 percent of the earth's coral reefs and more than 2,000 coral reef fish species. "Corals are people too," jokes Mark Erdmann, the marine biologist and senior adviser to Conservation International in Indonesia. We often forget that "corals are both plants and animals," he added, "and the main thing they provide is shelter and structure and substrate, like trees in the forest-no more trees: no more leopards or orangutans; no more corals: no more fish." But runaway development and both dynamite and cyanide fishing have imperiled many of Indonesia's coral reefs, which provide the critical habitat for fish and other reef animals. A Western diplomat in Jakarta who follows biodiversity issues told me that one Indonesian fishing fleet company had informed him that in the year 2000, 8 percent of its catch from the waters around Indonesia were small baby fish, and by 2004 that number was 34 percent. As this diplomat put it, "When you are into one-third babies, the end is near."
Imagine a world without forests. Imagine a world without coral. Imagine a world without fish. Imagine a world where rivers run only in the rainy season. Not only is that possible in more and more places, it is possible in our lifetime -if we don't develop a system for preservation of biodiversity and natural resources that is as smart, comprehensive, and effective as the system we are trying to develop for clean power generation.
Of course, lots of people offer quick-fix plans for how to stem the tide of biodiversity degradation, but in countries like Indonesia, plans are rarely implemented as intended. While attending the Bali climate change conference, I came across an article in The Jakarta Post (December 11, 2007) that described what usually happens instead. The author, Andrio Adiwibowo, a lecturer in environmental management at the University of Indonesia, wrote about a smart plan to protect the mangrove forests around coastal Jakarta:
Even for many biologists, mangrove forests are still viewed as wastelands. Yet, the tidal flood late last month in Jakarta reminds us that if we don't respect these salt-water tolerant plant communities, it can turn our backyards into the wasteland. Approximately 14 years ago, a team from the ecology laboratory at the Biology Department, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, made environmental assessments on the coastal areas of Jakarta and warned of possibility of tidal floods. The suggested solution was first to maintain mangroves as the core zone, and second to provide a buffer zone. Based on forestry regulations and conservation laws, the vegetation in this buffer zone should consist 60 percent of native mangrove plants, and the rest plants that can be utilized by the surrounding people ... If the plan is implemented, a repeat of the recent floods can be avoided. Nevertheless, the plan was not implemented. Instead of providing a buffer zone, development encroached into the core zone, which was covered over by concrete.Nevertheless, the plan was not implemented. That is such a common refrain when it comes to preservation of species, coral reefs, fish, mangroves, and our tropical forests. Governor Suebu of Papua seemed to be well aware of this tendency. His own motto, he told me, was "Think big, start small, act now." But act how? Now that we know the world's biodiversity is under greater threat than ever in a world that is hot, flat, and crowded, what is the comprehensive strategy, not just a one-off plan, that can work for preservation?
The short answer: We need a million Noahs and a million arks.
Extracted from Thomas L Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded
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