Oct 11, 2022 06:33 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 11, 2022 07:08 PM by C C.)
Researchers say the government tightly controls—and sometimes disputes—population estimates for endangered species
https://www.science.org/content/article/...ation-data
EXCERPTS: Even before Dutch conservation scientist Erik Meijaard submitted an opinion piece to The Jakarta Post last month, he was worried about how the Indonesian government would react. In the article, he and four other Western scientists challenged the government’s claims that orangutan populations in the country are thriving. Meijaard was aware that Indonesia is increasingly wary of “foreign interference” in conservation matters and had invited eight Indonesian collaborators to co-author the article. None agreed to do so.
After the piece ran on 14 September, the reaction was swift. In a letter issued that same day, Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Affairs (KLHK), said the authors had “discredited” the government and banned them from doing research in Indonesia. It also ordered national parks and KLHK offices around the country to tell the ministry’s headquarters about any research conducted by foreign scientists. Data from such research would be subject to monitoring and control by KLHK from now on.
The move has no direct impact on the five authors’ work. None of them is currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia, and all are based abroad. Meijaard runs a consulting company in nearby Brunei; his co-authors are based in the United States, Malaysia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. But the ban signals a deeper problem, Meijaard says. Wary of interference in the government’s ambitious development goals, KLHK has tightened control over research on the country’s enormous biological diversity by both Indonesian and foreign scientists. Data on wildlife populations have been shelved and criticism of the government has met with repercussions. “Our KLHK ban is not the issue,” Meijaard says. “The real issue is the independence of Indonesian science in general and conservation science more specifically.”
Many Indonesian scientists concur, but very few want to talk about it publicly. “Our voices are silenced,” says a conservationist in Sumatra who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
There is little doubt about the threats to Indonesia’s biodiversity...
[...] Meijaard says the Indonesian government should open up about the state of its biodiversity by making results from population and habitat surveys public and storing them in Indonesian and international databases. But with foreign researchers squeezed out and their Indonesian colleagues increasingly fearful, that seems unlikely to happen.
One Indonesian scientist says criticizing the government publicly could mean losing their job. “And it’s not only about me, but about hundreds of people working in the same organization,” the researcher adds. Since the Jakarta Post article, at least one-third of the Indonesia-based co-authors on an upcoming paper about orangutan conservation have asked Meijaard to remove their names, he says: “This fear is doing real damage to Indonesian science.” (MORE - missing details)
https://www.science.org/content/article/...ation-data
EXCERPTS: Even before Dutch conservation scientist Erik Meijaard submitted an opinion piece to The Jakarta Post last month, he was worried about how the Indonesian government would react. In the article, he and four other Western scientists challenged the government’s claims that orangutan populations in the country are thriving. Meijaard was aware that Indonesia is increasingly wary of “foreign interference” in conservation matters and had invited eight Indonesian collaborators to co-author the article. None agreed to do so.
After the piece ran on 14 September, the reaction was swift. In a letter issued that same day, Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Affairs (KLHK), said the authors had “discredited” the government and banned them from doing research in Indonesia. It also ordered national parks and KLHK offices around the country to tell the ministry’s headquarters about any research conducted by foreign scientists. Data from such research would be subject to monitoring and control by KLHK from now on.
The move has no direct impact on the five authors’ work. None of them is currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia, and all are based abroad. Meijaard runs a consulting company in nearby Brunei; his co-authors are based in the United States, Malaysia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. But the ban signals a deeper problem, Meijaard says. Wary of interference in the government’s ambitious development goals, KLHK has tightened control over research on the country’s enormous biological diversity by both Indonesian and foreign scientists. Data on wildlife populations have been shelved and criticism of the government has met with repercussions. “Our KLHK ban is not the issue,” Meijaard says. “The real issue is the independence of Indonesian science in general and conservation science more specifically.”
Many Indonesian scientists concur, but very few want to talk about it publicly. “Our voices are silenced,” says a conservationist in Sumatra who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
There is little doubt about the threats to Indonesia’s biodiversity...
[...] Meijaard says the Indonesian government should open up about the state of its biodiversity by making results from population and habitat surveys public and storing them in Indonesian and international databases. But with foreign researchers squeezed out and their Indonesian colleagues increasingly fearful, that seems unlikely to happen.
One Indonesian scientist says criticizing the government publicly could mean losing their job. “And it’s not only about me, but about hundreds of people working in the same organization,” the researcher adds. Since the Jakarta Post article, at least one-third of the Indonesia-based co-authors on an upcoming paper about orangutan conservation have asked Meijaard to remove their names, he says: “This fear is doing real damage to Indonesian science.” (MORE - missing details)