RI plans Frontier Study

Indonesian scientists will embark on an ambitious, two-year expedition to Raja Ampat in West Papua to study biodiversity there and possibly unearth new species in a region dubbed the world’s most diverse.

“The Widya Nusantara expedition will be conducted in both the sea and land areas of Raja Ampat with the goal of discovering the ultimate frontier of Indonesia and strengthening national resilience,” the expedition’s head, Hery Harjono, said at a press conference.

“We will study the unexplored and least-explored areas of Raja Ampat.”

The Indonesian Science Institute (LIPI) will deploy around 130 experts, who will be divided into several teams encompassing fields such as oceanography, geology, botany and fauna. Each group will enter the area at a different period throughout the two-year expedition.

Hery said LIPI would also include foreign experts — researchers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and Japan have shown interest — and university students.

The expedition will also include “soft science” teams, which will gift simple technology to local people and research endemic cultures.

The biology team is scheduled to arrive this month at Raja Ampat and will be followed by the oceanography team in October.

Marine experts will use the Baruna Jaya VII and Baruna Jaya VIII research ships during their study.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will officially see the team off May 23 from the Herbarium Bogoriense at the Cibinong Science Center.

Among the subjects to be researched are whale migration routes and archaic climates. “Studying paleoclimatology is important to better estimating and understanding climate changes,” Hery said.

Suharsono, the team’s deputy head, said their destination was still relatively unknown to many Indonesians.

“Raja Ampat is regarded internationally as very beautiful and as having many natural potentials. Some people call it the ‘center of species and biodiversity,'” he said.

Didit Okta Pribadi, a researcher from Bogor Botanical Gardens who will study botany on the expedition, said that Raja Ampat, which was declared a regency some four years ago, could face potential ecological destruction.

“Usually there are many developments that follow an area becoming a regency. Conservation aspects should be taken into consideration.”

Didit said his team would collect data on flora in the regency.

“For endemic plants, we cannot just pull them and replant them here in Java. There needs to be certain studies first on their surroundings,” he said.

He added that the team would also collect seedlings from endangered plants to ensure the various species would not die out.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo