Indonesia      PDF  | Print |  Email
indonesia_flagIndonesia has:
  • 10% of the world’s plants
  • 12% of all mammals
  • 16% of all reptiles and amphibians
  • 17% of all birds
  • 25% of all fish
  • One eighth of the world’s coral reefs 
  • More than 400 species of dipterocarps
  • 25,000 flowering plants

Globally, Indonesia ranks…
  • First in species richness for mammals (515 species, 36% endemic)
  • First for swallowtail butterflies (121 species, 44% endemic)
  • Third for reptiles (600+ species)
  • Fourth for birds (1519 species, 28% endemic)
  • Fifth for amphibians (270 species)
  • Seventh for flowering plants

Ratification of MEAs
  • CBD – 1994
  • CITES – 1979
  • Ramsar Convention – 1992
  • WHC – 1989
  • Cartagena Protocol – 2005

Description

Indonesia is renowned for both its biological diversity and the rate of its loss. The country’s unusually high levels of species richness and endemism are explained by the fact that it straddles two zoogeographic regions and three floristic Malesian regions, is located in the wet tropics, and has many islands and an extremely complex geological history. It is one of the world’s centers of species diversity of hard corals and many groups of reef-associated flora and fauna, and has the highest coral species richness in the world.  It is also one of the world’s centers for agrobiodiversity of plant cultivars and domesticated livestock.

Indonesia’s rich biodiversity is being rapidly degraded by landscape change, pollution and over harvesting.  Between 1985 and 1997, 20 million ha of forest was lost (about 1.5 million ha per year) most of it lowland forest below 300m where more than 60% of all rainforest species occur.  Since 1997, the rate of forest loss is 2.4 million ha per year or more.  From 1997-1998, 5 million ha of forests were degraded by fires.  60% of Indonesian coral reefs have deteriorated.  Industrial and urban wastes pollute fresh and coastal water ecosystems.  Overexploitation of resources is caused by over harvesting for medicinal supplies and increasing subsistence requirements of impoverished communities.  Species dependent on lowland forests are also on the verge of extinction.


Protected Areas

To protect dwindling biodiversity resources, the Ministry of Forestry has gazetted 447 protected areas covering as much as 21.5 million hectares of forest and other terrestrial ecosystems.  Conservation programmes have also been established with NGOs to protect key species including the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), rhinceros (Dicerorhinus sumtrensis) and orangutan (Pongo abelii). Indonesia also provides habitats for the Owa (Hylobates lar), Kedih (Presbytis thomasi) and others.

 

 

Sources:

  • Ministry of Environment.  Indonesia:  Third National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity.