Honoring Wallace in Ternate
Tuesday, 09 December, 2008 | 00:16 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Ternate:The administration of Ternate Island in North Maluku are not just naming streets and erecting monuments to honor Alfred Russel Wallace, the 19th century British anthropologist who initiated the Wallacea line to distinguish the different flora and fauna of the region. An area of 50 – 100 hectares in Jailolo is being developed into the Wallacea Conservation Centre.

The chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Umar Anggara Jenie said the construction of the conservation centre is interesting as there has been no previous attempts at conserving the local flora and fauna in the province. He hopes that Ternate scientists can concentrate on the Wallacea flora and fauna which have become the evidence of nature's adaptation process to continuous environmental change, which is also the most well-known principle of Wallace, namely the survival of the fittest.

"This is a very good idea because of the unique characteristics of the Wallacea area, a transition between Asia and Australia," Umar said after attending a pre-symposium to commemorate the 150th anniversary of "Letter from Ternate" in Ternate, last week.

Endang Sukara, LIPI's deputy chairman in charge of the Bio-Sciences said the Wallacea flora-fauna conservation area is currently only available in a botanical garden in Enrekang, South Sulawesi. The garden is to be elevated to the status of a national park in the near future.

"It would be great to have a conservation area in Jailolo that is intended especially for the Wallacea species," he said. "Particularly the ones most likely to become extinct. These are mentioned in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), because there are much fauna from the eastern area that is included in the list."

Besides cooperating with the Ternate administration to build a conservation center in Jailolo, LIPI is also building a Wallacea nature observatorium in Sasa, South Ternate. This nature center will be an expansion of LIPI's marine research office in Ternate.


TJANDRA