Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms on earth – the different plants, animals, micro-organisms and the ecosystem of which they are a part - explained by the speaker who is a Guest Lecturer from Indonesia last 25th of April 2014.
Climate Change, Forest Fire, Pesticide Use, and Invasive Alien Species and its Impacts on Biodiversity (A brief look at Indonesian Case)
Indonesia has 10% of the world plants, 12% of all the animals, 17% of all the birds, 25% of all fishes, around 25,000 flowering plants, comprising 15% of all the species in the world. This is completely why every developments to be established in the country must take into consideration if it will foster harmful impacts to the environment. To prevent the wasteful overuse of wildlife and resources tremendous fundings are generated and different countries are working together in order to design a sustainable and future functioning ecosystem. It is indeed a responsibility to disseminate knowledge regarding this matter to the people wherein most citizens fail to pay proper care and attention.
During the seminar, the Professor strongly mentioned that the biggest danger to plant life is not the environment but 81% of the actual impacts are contributed mainly by humans. And nowadays, there are proportions of plant species which are under threat of extinction. This will soon lead problems concerning agriculture and food security. He added that many species have no more habitat even some monkeys have to migrate to the nearby villages because trees are being deforested illegally. And in just 5 to 10 years , this might cause death of many organisms. Therefore, climate change and the overexploitation of resources cause biodiversity loss and changes in the ecosystem.
Likewise, Pesticide use affects insect biodiversity.Not all insects are harmful, some are beneficial that can actually serve as food to human and give nutritional values namely for energy, protein, calcium,riboflavin and niacin. Chemicals from pesticides affect not only insects and pests but can generate new strains of species. When intensive applications are made, insect incubates and hence will not die instead they grow and develop more. In such cases, it is advised to not spray more using chemicals, but make use of natural ways to hit insects like using plant extracts to hit them. In case of forest fire, He said that the problem is not just in their country but also to the next country close to them.
The seminar was participated by students from the Advanced Education Program and other faculty with some lecturers from Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry. It was held at the 3rd floor of the International Training and Develpment Center. Dr. Arinafril Naalim finished the seminar with the invitation to engage in a solution provided that it is really in the hands of the future scientists and society as a whole to become more responsible, deliver the knowledge to the public and together aim for Environmental Sustainability that includes making decisions and building actions to conserve the natural world.
Jimlea Nadezhda A. Mendoza