Flora and Fauna Destruction in Indonesia

c. Fauna of Eastern Indonesia Region

This area is also called Tanah Sahul fauna region. It covers New Guinea and the islands surrounds. Webber line lies between eastern and middle Indonesia fauna regions. The types of the animals are as follow: 1 mammals, that includes kangaroo, wallaby, bear, Nordic or Iran’s porcupine, possum or pouched climber, cuscus, tree kangaroo, and bat. 2reptiles that comprise crocodiles, monitor lizard, snake and turtle. 3amphibians, such as tree frog, flying frog and wild frog. 4birds, such as parrot, kingfisher, paradise bird, cassowary, and namudur; 5 many kinds of fish. 6 many kind of insects. Wallace line Webber line Source: Indonesia and world’s map, 2002 with some adjustment Picture 1.16 The fauna spread map in Indonesia Pair contribution With your partner, answer the following questions : 1. Mention 15 typical Indonesia’s fauna and the regions that use them as the mascots. 2. Mention some Indonesia’s endemic fauna. 3. Mention some fauna that become the mascot of some regions.

C. Flora and Fauna Destruction in Indonesia

The flora and fauna damage can be caused by natural factors, like fire, drought, volcano eruption, flood and landslide. The uncontrolled human activity that may destroy the environment needs more concern. Uncontrolled development may damage an ecosystem that further will affect on flora and fauna destruction. Indonesia is a developing country that will continuously implement the developments optimally. In this era, people always want to use all kinds of resource but and have no concern on the preservation of flora and fauna. Without any control, there will be a serious destruction that is the genetic erosion. Genetic erosion is the reduction of genetic diversity. It happens because of the extinction of particular flora and fauna types. It can be caused due to the decrease of habitat width, habitat damage, excessive exploitation, and injudicious use of technology. As the human population in Indonesia increase, more settlement will expand. It will bit by bit reduce the size of animal and plant habitats. Animals and plants have specific size of “life space.” For example, an elephant needs 250-500 hectare for its life space, while a tiger may explore up to 100 kilometers in a night. The habitat damage may destroy even make particular flora and fauna extinct, eventhough the size remains the same. For instance, if a forest habitat is destroyed and it turns into a shrub, the ecosystem balance will be gone. Some types of pest animal may grow rapidly that in turn will cause other disasters. Excessive exploitation will cause some animals and plants extinct. For instance, a massive wood and rattan exploitation will cause them extinct and so will the uncontrolled fish exploitation in the sea. Many animals and plants may vanish due to the injudicious use of technology. For example, pollution resulted from industrial activities may cause some species extinct. The use of excessive insecticide and herbicide can make some species of fish, birds, insects and plants extinct. Some species become extinct. Meanwhile, they are very useful for the human life. For example, types of animals and plants used as foods tend to decrease as the human civilization. To maintain the genetic preservation of flora and fauna, some efforts need to be done, some of them are: 1. Establishing protected zones, such as sanctuary and conservation forest and animal sanctuary. Conservation forest has similar function as sanctuary, specifically to maintain hydrological function to protect genetic diversity. 2. Establishing buffer zones, it is a place to anticipate outer pressure toward sanctuary especially inhabitant’s pressure in order to get the plantations, woods, and the other needs. Buffer is an area between agricultural terrain as well as settlement and the sanctuary. 3. Developing the protected zones, for example use the sanctuary for research, education and tourism. 4. Establishing national parks and zoo to collect some living things. 5. Establishing a genetic bank to store and maintain particular gen. This can be in the form of seed storage for plants, or sperm storage for animals. The development of biotechnology can improve particular types of flora and fauna. Summary The spread of flora on the earth’s surface is divided into some types, namely, tropical and subtropical biomes, temperate biomes, polar biomes, and montane biomes. The spread of world’s fauna is grouped into six spreading area, they are Palaearctic, Nearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian and Neotropical. Based on their biomes, the spread of world’s fauna can also be classified into desert biomes, grassland biomes, tropical rainforest biomes, deciduous biomes, taiga and tundra. The spread of Indonesia’s flora is divided into four, namely, flora of Sumatra-Borneo, flora of Java-Bali, Wallace Flora and Flora of New Guinea New Guinea. The spread of the Indonesia’s fauna is divided into three; they are fauna of western Indonesia, fauna of middle Indonesia and fauna of eastern Indonesia. The damage of flora and fauna will cause genetic erosion. It is the deduction of genetic diversity that happens due to the extinction of particular plants and animals.

Chapter 1 Evaluation

1. Climate factors that influence the flora and fauna spread are… a. The soil type, soil texture and soil fertility b. the latitude and the landscape c. the relief of the earth surface d. temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall e. human activities 2. Forest that occurs in a tropical area, has more than 2,000 mm per year average rainfall and has evergreen plants is called….. a. seasonal forest b. coniferous forest c. tropical savanna forest d. tropical rainforest e. grassland 3. Rafflessia arnoldi that lives in tropical rainforest belongs to a. tree strangler b. herbs c. epiphyte d. saprophyte e. parasite 4. Tropical, subtropical, temperate, and polar are biomes which are grouped based on…..characteristic. a. edaphic b. climatic c. regional d. landscape e. aquatic 5. In an ecosystem the plants’ role is as… a. producer b. consumer c. decomposer d. consumer and decomposer