Paving of a dirt road linking two cities in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region could spark the destruction of a wildlife reserve whose isolation has made it a biodiversity hotspot.
The 585-kilometer (364-mile) road runs from the coastal city of Jayapura, the provincial capital, southwest through the mountainous hinterland to the town of Wamena. It forms part of the Trans-Papua Highway, a web of asphalt cutting thousands of kilometers across the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea.
About a sixth of the Jayapura-Wamena stretch runs through Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve, but has not yet been paved. Spanning nearly 950,000 hectares (2.35 million acres), the reserve covers an area six times the size of London, and has been dubbed a “species generator” due to its diversity of wildlife and vegetation.
The reserve has 40 types of ecosystems, including montane rainforests, lowland and hill rainforests, freshwater swamp forests, flooded grasslands and savannas, and mangroves. It’s also home to at least 332 bird species and 80 mammal species, with many more species yet to be described by science.
Thirty-nine Indigenous communities also live in the wildlife reserve.
The government says the road will open up access to isolated regions, lower the prices of goods, and generally improve the welfare of people living in the mountainous areas. The Trans-Papua Highway plan was first concocted during the regime of former president Suharto in the 1980s. Some sections of the 4,325-km (2,687-mi) network have already been built and paved, with the rest to be finished by 2022.
In Indonesia, the construction of roads is permitted in national parks to a limited extent, but is prohibited entirely inside wildlife reserves. In 2014, however, the forestry ministry issued a permit allowing the road to cut through the wildlife reserve, according to Yan Ukago, the head of the public works department in Yalimo district, where the reserve is located.
“From Benawa subdistrict in Yalimo, to Yahuli bridge until Elelim subdistrict, the road runs through protected areas,” he said. “But the status of the areas can be converted with a permit from the ministry of forestry. The road has been constructed, which means the process has been carried out.”
The bureaucratic process of declaring an area no longer protected for wildlife doesn’t mean it doesn’t still constitute wildlife habitat, Yan said. He said paving the road would likely open up the wildlife reserve to encroachment, with surrounding communities moving in the area to establish settlements there.
“When a road is constructed a bit further into the forest there, the locals would also move there because that’s also their area,” he said. “They will live along the road.”
This will eventually lead to the forests inside the wildlife reserve being cleared to make way for houses and farms, he added.
“From the aspect of ecology or environment, the road will have an effect,” Yan said.
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The 585-kilometer (364-mile) road runs from the coastal city of Jayapura, the provincial capital, southwest through the mountainous hinterland to the town of Wamena. It forms part of the Trans-Papua Highway, a web of asphalt cutting thousands of kilometers across the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea.
About a sixth of the Jayapura-Wamena stretch runs through Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve, but has not yet been paved. Spanning nearly 950,000 hectares (2.35 million acres), the reserve covers an area six times the size of London, and has been dubbed a “species generator” due to its diversity of wildlife and vegetation.
The reserve has 40 types of ecosystems, including montane rainforests, lowland and hill rainforests, freshwater swamp forests, flooded grasslands and savannas, and mangroves. It’s also home to at least 332 bird species and 80 mammal species, with many more species yet to be described by science.
Thirty-nine Indigenous communities also live in the wildlife reserve.
The government says the road will open up access to isolated regions, lower the prices of goods, and generally improve the welfare of people living in the mountainous areas. The Trans-Papua Highway plan was first concocted during the regime of former president Suharto in the 1980s. Some sections of the 4,325-km (2,687-mi) network have already been built and paved, with the rest to be finished by 2022.
In Indonesia, the construction of roads is permitted in national parks to a limited extent, but is prohibited entirely inside wildlife reserves. In 2014, however, the forestry ministry issued a permit allowing the road to cut through the wildlife reserve, according to Yan Ukago, the head of the public works department in Yalimo district, where the reserve is located.
“From Benawa subdistrict in Yalimo, to Yahuli bridge until Elelim subdistrict, the road runs through protected areas,” he said. “But the status of the areas can be converted with a permit from the ministry of forestry. The road has been constructed, which means the process has been carried out.”
The bureaucratic process of declaring an area no longer protected for wildlife doesn’t mean it doesn’t still constitute wildlife habitat, Yan said. He said paving the road would likely open up the wildlife reserve to encroachment, with surrounding communities moving in the area to establish settlements there.
“When a road is constructed a bit further into the forest there, the locals would also move there because that’s also their area,” he said. “They will live along the road.”
This will eventually lead to the forests inside the wildlife reserve being cleared to make way for houses and farms, he added.
“From the aspect of ecology or environment, the road will have an effect,” Yan said.
https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...d-wamena-jayapura-mamberamo-foja-lorentz/amp/