Indonesians in Focus: Damayanti Buchori

Many scientists have suggested that around 2,000 small islands in Indonesia will disappear due to rising sea levels caused by global warming. And, if this prediction does become reality, the biodiversity on those islands, including flora, fauna and micro-bacteria — all important sources for potential medicines — will also vanish.

“Global warming will cause rising sea levels and those small islands will disappear in the next 10 to 15 years,” said environmentalist Damayanti Buchori, who has been appointed executive director of the Indonesian Biodiversity Fund (Kehati).

An entomologist, or expert on insects, Damayanti, who earned her PhD from Indiana University in the U.S., said Kehati will focus its programs on preserving biodiversity on small islands in Indonesia.

The country has about 17,500 islands, including about 17,400 that are categorized as small islands measuring less than 10,000 square kilometers. Only few of the small islands are inhabited.

Every island has unique biodiversity, even if they have common ecosystem characteristics such as mangrove forests and coral reefs.

“The world has acknowledged us as the second richest country in terms of biodiversity, after Brazil. We have a potential to contribute to science with our research,” Damayanti said in an interview at the Kehati office in South Jakarta recently.

As a funding agency, Kehati, which was founded by senior economist and former environment minister Emil Salim in 1994, will finance studies on protecting biodiversity on small islands, she said.

Besides financing research on biodiversity preservation, she said Kehati would also fund studies on the cost and benefits of using biofuels to replace fossil-based fuels in Indonesia.

“It’s a bit problematic. We should make a deep study whether it’s worthwhile enough to cut down our forests and plant oil palm trees to support the biofuel program,” said Damayanti, who was born in Bandung on Oct. 28, 1960.

The government recently announced a massive biofuel development program which is expected to turn the country into one of the biggest biofuel producers in the world.

Despite sharp criticism from both international and local environmentalists, the plan to turn more than five million hectares of land into plantations to grow biofuel plants will go ahead.
The five million hectares of land will be used to grow the basic feedstock for bioethanol and biodiesel production, such as oil palms, jatropha, sugarcane and cassava.

While the government has stated that the plantations should be established on idle land, environmentalists still fear they will take up productive land and forests.

Hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been converted into palm oil plantations in recent years.

According to Damayanti, the plan to grow the feedstock for biofuel is feared to reduce productive land, which could disturb the food stock in the country.

Furthermore, the conversion of forest into monoculture palm oil plantations will damage biodiversity, the graduate of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture said.

“Kehati will fight against palm oil plantations if they damage the forest,” Damayanti said.

She agreed with the world campaign to reduce carbon emissions by reducing the use of fossil fuels in an effort to reduce the greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming.

“But it should not sacrifice the forests as they are the lungs of the world and absorb the carbon emissions,” said Damayanti, who earned her master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.

Initially funded by the United State Agency for International Development (USAID), Kehati is now a respected non-governmental organization that is on the front lines in campaigning for biodiversity awareness.

Kehati is registered in the U.S. as a foundation which gives grants to activities related to biodiversity conservation. This frees it from having to pay income tax, based on Article 501c of the Internal Revenue Code.

Besides support from American funds and local corporations, the organization will launch a mutual fund worth up to Rp 1 trillion (US$109.9 million) on May 9.

In cooperation with PT Bahana TCW Investment Management, which will manage the Kehati Lestari fund, the profits of the fund will be partly used to support biodiversity-preservation programs.

Before releasing the mutual fund, the public has already admired the organization’s effort to give Kehati awards to individuals and corporations who have shown their concern for the environment.
Besides Emil, Kehati, which was led by senior activist Ismid Hadad for years before he was replaced by Damayanti last month, has big names on its board, including UN Millennium Development Goals ambassador Erna Witoelar.

“It’s a challenge for me. But those famous names and also Pak Ismid are still helping us here,” Damayanti, who is the fourth daughter of noted education expert Mochtar Buchori, said.

Actually, Damayanti is not new to the environmental world, having been executive director of the Peka Foundation, which works on insect studies and preservation, from 2001 to 2007.

Damayanti, who likes swimming and martial arts — she has reached a high rank in the Indonesian Silat Perisai Diri and Bangau Putih martial arts groups — has received many local and international awards, including the International Conservation Scientists Award, Wildlife Trust, in New York, the U.S., last year.

A. Junaidi