Caterpillars Are a ‘Warning From God,’ House Speaker Says

Jakarta Globe, April 13, 2011

A Ministry of Agriculture official displaying caterpillars during an outbreak
in Medan, North Sumatra, on Wednesday. House of Representatives (DPR)
Speaker Marzuki Alie says an outbreak of caterpillars that has reached plague
proportions in parts of Indonesia is a warning from God. (Antara Photo)

A senior politician from the ruling Democratic Party says an outbreak of caterpillars that has reached plague proportions in parts of Indonesia is a warning from God.

House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Marzuki Alie, who has a reputation for putting his foot in his mouth, said on Wednesday that the caterpillar infestations in parts of Bali, Java, Jakarta and Sumatra was a message from God for Indonesians to look inwards and evaluate themselves.

Caterpillar

“Yes, it was God’s warning,” Marzuki said at the DPR. “It is God’s warning that we should introspect and make changes. Every incident has a meaning behind it.”

Marzuki said it was “not good” for us to keep on debating and fighting over issues.

He said Indonesia was facing many problems and therefore it was better for all elements in society to focus on their work for the betterment of the nation.

Marzuki has most recently made headlines for continuing to push for the controversial construction of a Rp 1.13 trillion office tower for legislators.

When an NGO threatened to file a lawsuit against him, Marzuki claimed that nongovernmental organizations did not represent the people, lawmakers did.

“[NGOs] please don’t speak on behalf of the people, House members are the official representatives,” he said.

In late October, following the tsunami that devastated the Mentawai Islands off West Sumatra, Democrat and House Speaker Marzuki Alie was widely criticized for saying the victims should have expected the disaster.

“If you’re afraid of waves, don’t live by the shore,” he said. “To be swept away by a big wave or by a tsunami is probably the consequence of living on an island.”

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Baby elephant

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Singapore | Fri, 12/10/2010

Baby elephant: A 2-week old male baby elephant explores next to his 25-year old mother, Nandong, at the Singapore Zoo's Night Safari on Friday in Singapore. This baby is the first baby to be born in the enclosure after 9 years and had a birth weight of 151-kilograms. The Singapore Zoo and Night Safari ensures that its animals in captivity have habitats as close to that of the wild as part of its wildlife conservation efforts. Elephants are listed as endangered on International Union for Conservation of Nature.(AP/Wong Maye-E)

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S'pore, Jakarta key partners

Classic Dox - A boat trip through Borneo

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Anne Blair Gould

(Photo: rnw.nl)

Borneo is one of the top five places on earth where wildlife is most endangered. One area seriously threatened is the Sebangau peat swamp forest in Kalimantan where the world's largest population of orangutans is dwindling fast.

Ten years ago there were 15,000 orangutans; now there are only 7,000. Illegal logging robs them of their home; illegal pet trading robs the young orangs of their mothers. And the worst thing is, these are not even the greatest threats right now. What's really going to put paid to the peat forest of Sebangau is a vast network of canals that's draining the whole swampy area.

Peatland drying out

"These canals were dug by illegal loggers to float the logs out to the larger rivers bordering this area," explains Helen Morrogh-Bernard who is studying orangutan ecology and behaviour in Sebangau. The net result of all these canals is that the peat swamp forest has been drying out.

"As the canals drain the area, the peat dries out, the trees fall over and forest fires start more easily," adds Simon Husson, who like Helen Morrogh-Bernard works for CIMTROP (Centre for International Co-operation in Management of Tropical Peatland) and studies Sebangau's orangutans. "It's the biggest single problem we have here," Simon continues.

"Because the canals are draining this peatland, we get very extended dry seasons where the water-table can be one-and-a-half metres below the surface, whereas it use to be only 30 centimetres."

Thanks to much work on the part of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, Sebangau was declared a National Park in October 2004, and environmentalists are hopeful that this will at least reduce if not stop illegal logging.

Orphan orangutans

In other part of this same forest, we find the Nyara Menteng rehabilitation centre for orphaned orangutans. This is the second centre built by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, founded by Dutchman Willie Smits. The first, 'Wanariset Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre,' built in 1991, is in East Kalimantan.

Communications officer, Jo-Lan van Leeuwen, explains what the BOS Foundation is trying to do:

"All the little orangutans here have been orphaned when hunters shot there mother in order to capture the baby for the illegal pet trade. Baby orangs usually stay with their mother for the first seven or eight years and they learn how to find fruits and how to make nests from their mothers. So here we provide them with human 'surrogate mothers' who take the little orang-utans into the forest every day and try and them teach them the skills they need."

Orangutan exams

They will eventually need these skills as the BOS Foundation plans to reintroduce as many of the 300 or so young apes back into the wild as possible. But first each orangutan has to pass its exams.

"Not far from the centre we have three islands where we bring our orang-utans when we think that they might have the right character and the necessary skills to make it on their own,” says van Leeuwen.

“Here on these islands we observe them closely to see if they make the grade - and if they pass the test, then we will release them into a protected area where there really will be on their own - although we will still be observing them."

Planting season: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono plants a mangrove tree in the Angke ecotourism park in North Jakarta on Monday as part of efforts to rehabilitate the mangrove forest. Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf

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