LIPI

Endang Sukara
Indonsian Institute of Sciences (LIPI),
Jl. Jenderal Gatot Subroto No. 10, Jakarta 12170, INDONESIA.
Telp. 62-21-522 5711 ext. 288; Fax/Telp. 62 21 525 2362;
E-mail: endang.sukara@lipi.go.id
LIPI

 Earth is life and life is biodiversity

 Biodiversity exist on Earth resulting from over 3
billion years of natural selection - efficiency,
productivity and specialization.
 Biodiversity is catalyst that:
 capture and transform energy and materials, producing
food, fuel, fibre and medicines;
 recycle wastes, create pure drinking water, drive global
biogeochemical cycles that create and maintain an aerobic
atmosphere, regulate global climate;
 generate soil fertility, and provide other ecosystem goods
and services

Yet we do not know much about it !!!!!

LIPI

Magainins are small amphiphilic

peptides produced by frogs and toads.
They collapse ion-gradients and cause
lethal swelling of many bacteria.
LIPI

o The world exist in 100 and 1,000

years will be of human design
o Society faces new, tough trade-offs:
• Between the current benefits and the
future costs of environmental damage
• Between benefits to a few and costs to
many
LIPI

1. Conversion of forest to farms, estate crops, mines, and

urbanization reduces the habitat for species and their
genetic variability
2. Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, Tsunami,
forest fire, overharvesting wild life, introduction of
allien species, and contamination of ecosystems
contributing to loss and impairing the human life-
support systems

Currently, the rate of forest destruction in Indonesia reaching more than 2 million
ha per year. Indonesian natural forest decreasing from 121 million ha in 1980s to
only 19 million ha today
 Destruction of Natural Resources by Human Activities
LIPI and Natural Phenomena
 LIPI
2000 2010
1900 1960 1980
Forest cover estimated
(except 2000)
Hectares (million)

Montane

Swamp

Lowland

2010
1900
2000
1980
1960
LIPI

Rising extinction rates

(based on Norman Meyers, The Sinking Ark - 1980)

70 million years ago 1 per 1000 years

1600-1900 1 every 4 years
1900-1980 1 per year
1980 1 per day
2000 100 per day
The loss of biodiversity will diminish the capacity of ecosystems to
provide society with a stable and sustainable supply of essential
goods and services
LIPI

The worst thing that can happen – will happen in the

1980s – is not energy depletion, economic collapse,
limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian
government. As terrible as these catastrophes would
be for us, they can be repaired within a few
generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s
that will take millions of years to correct is the loss
of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of
natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants
are least likely to forgive us (Wilson, 1980).
LIPI

1. Should we continue to clear cut forests for the

sake of human consumption?;
2. Should we continue to make
gasoline powered vehicles, depleting fossil fuel
resources and increase emission ?;
3. What environmental obligations do we need to
keep for future generations?;
 Applies scientific knowledge to solving problems or to
control over nature, social institutions, technology
itself, or people.
 Its goal is to perform a concrete task like building a
dam, clearing a forest, extracting ore from a mine, or
boosting the output of crop.
 Technological instincts will dictate not negotiation or
compromise, but elimination of the opposition as
quickly and efficiently as possible to reach the goal.
 Political rationality is the logic that guides
politician
 They are committed to concrete
accomplishments, and their true goal is to
preserve their own influence and power
 The political actors readily compromise,
negotiate, and accommodate, procedural spirit is
soft, not hard, like that of technological problem
solvers
 Its goal is to promote values, freedom,
justice, the right of each to a livelihood,
dignity, truth, peace, friendship, or love
 Its themes and legitimation based on:
a holistic belief system (a religion,
philosophy, world view, symbolic code, or
cultural universe of meanings) and
 the world of daily life experienced by
people
LIPI

Earth is the only place for human being to

live. It is very limited, very fragile and need
our full commitment to protect and maintain
the globe to ensure its sustainability
 Every human being is part of the community of life,
 Every human being has the same fundamental and equal
rights, including the right to life, liberty, and security of
person; to the freedoms of thought, conscience, and religion;
to enquiry and expression; to peaceful assembly and
association; to participation in government; to education;
and, within the limits of the Earth, to the resources needed
for a decent standard of living. No individual, community,
or nation has the right to deprive another of its means of
subsistence.
 Each person and each society is entitled to respect of these
rights and is responsible for the protection of these rights for
all others.
 Every life form warrants respect independently of its
worth to people. Human development should not
threaten the integrity of nature or the survival of other
species. People should treat all creatures decently and
protect them from cruelty, avoidable suggering, and
unnecessary killing.
 Everyone should take responsibility for his or her
impacts on nature. Peoples should conserve ecological
processes and the diversity of nature, and use any
resources frugally and efficiently, ensuring that their
uses of renewable resources are sustainable.
 Everyone should aim to share fairly the benefits and
cost of resource use among different communities and
interest groups, between present and future
generations. Each generation should leave to the future
a world that is at least as diverse and productive as the
one it inherited. Development of one society or
generation should not limit the opportunities of other
societies or generations.
 The protection of human right and those of the rest of
nature is a worldwide responsibility that transcends all
cultural, ideological and geographical abundance. The
responsibility is both individual and collective.
1. Investigation (learning how natural systems function);
2. Information (ensuring that the facts are available to
inform decisions);
3. Incentives (using economic tools to help conserve
biodiversity);
4. Integration (promoting a cross-sectoral approach to
conserving biodiversity); and
5. International support (building productive
collaboration for conserving biodiversity)

(McNelly, 1992)
 Two practical problems with assigning value to
biological diversity:
 Economists - it is not possible to figure out the true economic value of
any piece of biological diversity
 Conservationists - We do not know how many species are needed to
keep the planet green and healthy.
 For this, it is imperative for us to search and instrumentally
applied mechanisms to guide mankind in developing
decision-making process. Religious discourse, politicians,
and interdisciplinary academic study – a new model of
authentic dialogue is needed where exchanges are circular
and reciprocal, not vertical and reductionist to ensure a
better life now and the future.