Conservation in Indonesia is at risk, a team of researchers who study
the region argues

Date:
July 10, 2023
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
Indonesia, home to the largest tropical rainforest in Southeast
Asia and over 17,500 islands, is a country packed with biodiversity
and endangered species. However, scientists studying the region's
species and ecosystems are getting banned from Indonesia, and
conservation plans are being blocked. A team of conservation
researchers with long-term experience in Indonesia discuss
scientific suppression and other research challenges they have
witnessed while working in the region. They offer suggestions for
how to promote nature conservation, protect data transparency,
and share research with the public in this and other regions of
the world.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Indonesia, home to the largest tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia
and over 17,500 islands, is a country packed with biodiversity and
endangered species.

However, scientists studying the region's species and ecosystems are
getting banned from Indonesia and conservation plans are being blocked. In
a letter publishing in the journal Current Biology on July 10, a team of conservation researchers with long-term experience in Indonesia discuss scientific suppression and other research challenges they have witnessed
while working in the region. They offer suggestions for how to promote
nature conservation, protect data transparency, and share research with
the public in this and other regions of the world.

"If you look at a heat map of the Earth, and where endangered species
are located, Indonesia and that general region are just off the charts,"
says tropical environmental scientist William F. Laurance of James Cook University, who has been doing research on the environmental impacts of development in Southeast Asia for over a decade.

Laurance and his co-authors say they felt drawn to raise awareness about
the issues facing conservation in Indonesia because during their time
working in the region, they witnessed many instances when governments
and corporations impeded research -- including their own.

For example, they write in the letter, in 2022, five leading conservation researchers were banned from working in Indonesia on the premise that
they had "negative intentions" to "discredit the government." The
researchers reference papers about forest conservation and wildlife
management in Sumatra, for which the teams had multiple colleagues from Indonesia decline co-authorship "out of concerns that it might adversely
impact their funding, research permits, or opportunities for commercial contracts in Indonesia." "The researchers said, 'Well, no, you can't
tell that story, even though it's true, and you can't identify me or
include all the relevant details.' And this just kept happening over
and over again. It's a climate of fear," says Laurance.

To protect environmental research in Indonesia and the contributors who
work on it, Laurance and his team suggest that organizations funding
research in the region require data transparency for studies that they
support. They also recommend the implementation and usage of online
"safe houses" (whistleblower websites designed to protect anonymity and information leakage) and anonymized journals (publications in which contributors are not named). They say these interventions could help researchers get information out to the public without worrying about
the consequences of being personally tied to their findings.

The authors do note that several organizations are advocating for
change, especially in Indonesia. Some examples of these groups include
the Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom and the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, which are organizing to support conservation and thwart
efforts to silence researchers.

They also note that "scientific suppression is by no means unique to Indonesia." "I think scientists have a really serious responsibility to
try to communicate what's going on in the world. What's happening here
is a bigger problem than gets talked about," said Laurance. "There needs
to be a way to get information out, but scientists in many countries
are seriously struggling." This research was supported by funding from
James Cook University.

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Story Source: Materials provided by Cell_Press. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. William F. Laurance, Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, Wulan Pusparini, Erik
Meijaard, Jayden E. Engert. In Indonesia and beyond nature
conservation needs independent science. Current Biology, 2023; 33
(13): R706 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.068 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230710113228.htm

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