Indonesia: 125 year-old Deforestation warning is still credible!

Long before climate change had become the hot issue it is today,
British biogeographer Alfred Russel Wallace had foreseen the
correlation between deforestation and environmental disaster.
In his book Island Life, published in 1881, he said deforestation in
Sri Lanka and India “would adversely affect climate in those countries
and lead to their eventual impoverishment due to soil erosion”.

Scientists attending the International Conference on Alfred Russel
Wallace and Wallacea in the South Sulawesi capital city, Makassar,
agreed that the same applied to Wallacea — a transitional region that
sits between the Asian and Australian continental shelves. The
Wallacea region encompasses the islands of Nusa Tenggara (Lombok,
Komodo, Flores and Sumba), Timor, Sulawesi, Halmahera and most of
Maluku province.

The figures show that Wallace’s prediction was on
target. A comprehensive conservation assessment of Sulawesi by The
Nature Conservancy revealed that as of 2004, only about 20 percent of
the lowland forests were in good condition, and less than 3 percent
were in excellent old growth condition. The assessment showed that for
specialized habitat types such as alluvial forests, mangroves and
wetlands, generally less than 5 percent remained in good condition.
According to Conservation International, Wallacea is home to more than
10,000 plant species, of which approximately 1,500 or 15 percent are
endemic. Not only does the terrestrial area have rich biodiversity of
flora and fauna, but its marine area is famous for its coral reef and
wide range of fish species. Originally, most of Wallacea was forested;
today, 45 percent retains some sort of forest cover, and only 15
percent can be described as being in a pristine state, or close to it.
Of Wallacea’s total area of 347,000 square kilometers, only about
20,000 square kilometers is protected. Wallacea is home to 82
threatened and six critically endangered species of terrestrial
vertebrates. http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20090106.P01&irec=0

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