Use biodiversity to boost RI’s competitiveness: Experts

Indonesia should promote its rich biodiversity to boost the country’s global market competitiveness, especially in the areas of food and medicine.

As the world’s second largest biodiversity nation after Brazil, Indonesia should refocus development policy on its biodiversity resources, much of which remain untapped, noted environmentalist Emil Salim said.

“Biodiversity is more than just an environmental matter, it could increase Indonesia’s competitive edge,” Emil told a media briefing Thursday.

Emil, who is an environmental advisor to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that biodiversity should become a mainstream development issue if Indonesia wanted to compete with rich nations and emerging economies, such as China and India.

“We might be lagging behind Japan or China in terms of technology, but we can promote our abundant biodiversity as resources for food or medicine,” he said.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has awarded Emil with the Midori prize for efforts to prevent loss of species.

Other winners include John Lemire, a biologist-turned-filmaker, and Gretchen Daily of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. Each will receive US$100,000.

Indonesia — home to 10 percent of the world’s flowering plant species and 12 percent of all mammals — is one of the world’s most biodiverse nations.

More than half of Indonesian plant species are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else on earth.

But illegal logging, forest conversions and forest fires have placed 140 species of birds and 63 species of mammals on the list of threatened species.

Indonesia needs to invest in research and technology and encourage political action to increase the value of its biodiversity, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) scientist Endang Sukara said.

The value of biodiversity should also be integrated with Indonesia’s efforts to reduce poverty, promote green economic development and address climate change, he said.

“Biodiversity is green gold for Indonesia’s future,” he added.

The problem is that most Indonesian government officials do not understand the value of biodiversity, making it a difficult platform to grandstand on the mainstream national policy agenda, Endang said.

For example, LIPI research has found a sharp decrease in fish species in the Cisadane and Ciliwung Rivers, dropping from 218 species in the 1920s to only 26 in 2009.

“Most fresh water species are in critical condition because of pollutants from domestic and industrial waste,” he said.

Similar to the severe pollution in the two rivers, environmental degradation would also pose serious threats to Indonesia’s biodiversity.

In a recent rapid assessment of 0.2 hectares of forest in Riau, LIPI found some 225 plant species, of which 77 could be used as medicinal resources, Endang said.

Indonesia had been a net provider of species used for medicine and cosmetics, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) representative Hary Alexander said.

Delegations from around the world are gathered in Nagoya, Japan for the international assembly known as the “Meeting of Parties” (5th MOP) and “Conference of Parties” (10th COP) from Oct. 11 to 29.

The conference is discussing efforts to stop species loss and a planned treaty regulating access to biodiversity and benefit sharing.