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ndonesia must promote conservation and research on biodiversity and develop green economic policies, Endang Sukara, deputy chairman of the life and sciences division for the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said during a discussion in Jakarta on Friday.

Indonesia has some of the richest biological diversity of any nation on earth, but lack of investment in biological research has undervalued the riches and economic potential of biodiversity in the country, he added.

“It takes a great deal of research to understand not only the biota but also the value of biodiversity, and we seem to be ignoring this,” Endang said, adding that better understanding was crucial to conservation decisions and “bio-prospecting”.

Endang cited the example of Waigeo, Papua province, where scientists discovered six new varieties of sago growing in water with unusually high salinity. The government could develop these into major cash crops with the right agricultural and food processing technology, he said.

“It’s so unfortunate that we don’t have sago plantations in Indonesia. Sago normally grows in wild forests, which makes more in-depth research difficult to conduct,” he said.

Another example was breadfruit, or sukun, which has leaves that produce a red sap that has been scientifically proven to be an effective medicine for cardiovascular diseases, Endang said.

“This could be a project that could potentially generate billions of dollars in profit. However, neither the government nor the local pharmaceutical industry is interested in tapping this resource,” Endang said.

There is still a long list of species, from microbes to large biota — either already identified or undiscovered — that science must explore and preserve to help Indonesia achieve a sustainable green economy, he added.

Indonesia occupies only 1.3 percent of the world’s land surface, but has roughly 12 percent of the world’s mammals, 16 percent of the world’s known reptiles and amphibians, 17 percent of the world’s birds, and 25 percent of the world’s fish — and each year scientists find more.

However, Indonesia holds the grim distinction of having the largest number of vertebrate species under threat of extinction (128 species of mammals and 104 species of birds). It is estimated that US$67 billion worth of biodiversity is being lost each year.

Synchronizing regulations and policies among ministries was required to conserve biodiversity and make the green economy initiative successful in Indonesia, Environment Ministry assistant for global environmental affairs and international cooperation Liana Bratasida said.

“Activities related to the initiative are still sporadic and lack coordination, thereby making their impacts difficult to measure,” she said. (tsy)