Belantara Learning Series Eps. 4: “Ecosystem Restoration for Wildlife Conservation”

Belantara Foundation in collaboration with Environmental Management Study Program at Pakuan University Postgraduate School, LPPM Pakuan University, Faculty of Biology at National University, LPPM at National University, Rainforest Rising, and PT REKI again held the National Webinar-Belantara Learning Series Episode 4 (#BLSEPS4) on Thursday (04/ 08/22) through zoom application and also live broadcasts on YouTube Belantara Foundation from 08.30 to 12.30 WIB.

Along with celebrating the momentum of National Nature Conservation Day (HKAN) on August 10 following day, the #GlobalTigerDay celebration on July 29, following the celebration of Elephant Day and also World Orangutan Day on August 12 and 19, this time BLS raised the topic "Ecosystem Restoration for Wildlife Conservation”.

Healthy ecosystems are the key to conserving wild animals, reducing extinction rate for biodiversity conservation, climate change recovery and adaptation, while improving the quality of life of people. Healthy ecosystems also play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing carbon stocks, conserving biodiversity, helping to enrich animal corridors and providing sources of food or feed for animals, and managing and conserving biodiversity, especially endangered wildlife such as tigers, elephants, and orangutans.

"As we know, currently the sumatran tiger, sumatran elephant, and orangutan are critically endangered according to the IUCN. Restoring their habitat is one of the right and urgent steps to be taken together to help reduce the rate of extinction of biodiversity, especially the three charismatic species which are also protected by the Government of Indonesia," said Executive Director of Belantara Foundation, Dr. Dolly Priatna.

On the same occasion, rector of Pakuan University, Prof. Dr. err. pol. Ir. Didik Notosudjono, M.Sc. said the use of technology in management of conservation and restoration is urgently needed. "Technology can assist in protecting and securing the germplasm and genetic material of deceitful animals that are critically endangered from extinction," concluded Didik.

Prof. Dr. Ir. Hadi Sukadi Alikodra, MS., Professor of Faculty of Forestry and Environment IPB University added, "The threat of climate change is increasingly real to the wildlife environment, especially drought, forest and land fires causing reduced water sources, wallowing sites, food sources, tree death. sleep, nest, and rest. Acceleration of habitat restoration is needed with local species that are drought tolerant and fire resistant, as well as soil and water conservation techniques with water flow control technology, dams, and ponds.”

The United Nations Decade Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 has called for efforts to protect and preserve ecosystems around the world. This call aims to stop the rate of ecosystem degradation and restore it to achieve global goals. According to the UN Decade Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, efforts to restore 350 million hectares of degraded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems can potentially generate US$9 trillion in ecosystem services. In addition, ecosystem restoration can also remove 13 to 26 gigatonnes of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. In Indonesia, ecosystem restoration has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 52.92 million tonnes of carbon equivalent, which includes restoration of dry land, peat and mangrove ecosystems.

Also attending as keynote speaker were Prof. Dr. Ir. Hadi Sukadi Alikodra, MS., Professor of Faculty of Forestry and Environment IPB University; and Prof. Dr. err. pol. Ir. Didik Notosudjono, M.Sc., Rector of Pakuan University. Apart from that, there were also speakers who were experts in their fields, namely Alaric Balibrera, Director of Rainforest Rising; Yokyok 'Yoki' Hadiprakarsa, Founder of Indonesian Hornbill; Puspa D. Liman, M.Sc., TFCA Kalimantan Program Director and Mangarah Silalahi, M.Sc., MT., President Director of PT REKI.

This event can be viewed again via Belantara's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2IhBVEHpc&t=13s