NEW FINDS HIGHLIGHT INDONESIAN BIODIVERSITY

UNCLAS JAKARTA 001990 SIPDIS DEPT FOR OES/ENRC, OES/OMC, OES/OA, EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP USAID FOR ANE, EGAT [CBARBER, MMELNICK] COMMERCE FOR NOAA BANGKOK FOR RDM/A E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV EAID ECON PGOV ID SUBJECT: NEW FINDS HIGHLIGHT INDONESIAN BIODIVERSITY ¶1. Summary. Recent discoveries underscore the importance of efforts like the Coral Triangle and Heart of Borneo Initiatives (among others) to protect Indonesia and the region's biodiversity. In Sumatra, naturalists have stumbled across a new species of barking deer. Researchers have found a new population of a vulnerable species of sea cow in Central Kalimantan. Meanwhile, the journal Zootaxa officially reported the discovery of the longest stick insect in the world in Borneo (Kalimantan). End Summary. IUCN Lists New Sumatran Barking Deer Species -------------- ¶2. Indonesia has gained a new species of large mammal. The IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List of Threatened Species has accepted and included Muntiacus montanus as a distinctive species of muntjak or barking deer that appears to live only in mountainous terrain in Sumatra. A team of tiger conservationists first captured this species of barking deer in a photograph within Kerinci Seblat National Park in West Sumatra in 2002. They announced the discovered at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this month. Muntiacus montanus is listed under the category of "data deficient" because many questions remain about its endangered status, ecology, distribution, etc.). There are a couple of records as early as 1914 of a "strange" muntjak in Aceh (the area occupied by Gunung Leuser National Park) that may be Muntiacus montanus or another species of muntjak. Some conservationists believe it is the latter given the bio-geographic differences between Gunung Leuser and Kerinci Seblat. Vulnerable Sea Cow Population Found in Kalimantan -------------- -------------- ¶3. A team conducting research on sea grass from 2003 to 2007 discovered a new population of sea cow in Central Kalimantan. The team from the Sea Partnership Program consortium, including the provincial marine and fisheries department, Palangkaraya University, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) found an estimated 16 dugongs (Dugong dugon) in the waters of West Kotawaringin District. (Note: the Indonesian Sea Partnership Program is modeled after NOAA's Sea Grant Program, and started with support from a USAID coastal management project. End Note.) The dugong is a large -- and the only strictly-marine herbivorous -- marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. Its range spans the waters of at least 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific, though the majority of dugongs live in the northern waters of Australia. ¶4. Although legally protected in Indonesia, the main causes of population decline include hunting, habitat degradation, and fishing-related fatalities. Rosette Elbaar, the head of aquaculture of Central Kalimantan's marine and fisheries department, noted that one dugong died in 2007 after being caught in a fishing net. With a lifespan of up to 70 years and a slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to these types of exploitation. The IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) limits or bans the trade of derived products based on the population involved. "Chan's Megastick" - As Long as Your Arm -------------- ¶5. Phobaeticus chain, or "Chan's Megastick", is officially the longest insect in the world. At 56.7 centimeters in length with legs outstretched, it beat the previous record holder, Phobaeticus serratipes (also found in both Malaysia and Indonesia),by 1 centimeter. The entomologist Philip Bragg formally identified the stick insect from the Malaysian part of Borneo (Kalimantan) in this month's issue of peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. According to Bragg, a local villager found the specimen and handed it to Malaysian amateur naturalist Chan Chew Lun in 1989. The insect is named Phobaeticus chani, or "Chan's megastick," in Chan's honor. The insect's body alone measures 35.7 centimeters. HUME