Members of the Tobelo Dalam tribe are pictured on Monday (26/3/2018) in Aketajawe Lolobata National Park of South Tidore, North Maluku. The nomadic tribe hunts and harvests forest products such as resin and sago, maintaining the forests of the park by harvesting forest products only as needed.
A flashlight lighted the footpath that runs through the conservation forest of Aketajawe Lolobata National Park in Halmahera, North Maluku. Park ranger Jamal reminded us several times to be extremely careful and not fall into the ravine or be dragged by the current in the river that we were crossing.
After trekking since 4 a.m. for about 90 minutes, we finally arrived at the perfect location to spot the Wallace’s standardwing (Semioptera wallacii), an endemic bird species known locally as the bidadari Halmahera, or “Halmahera’s angel”. Their heavenly voices were heard from the canopy, while others were seen hopping from one tree to another with open wings, appearing as though they were dancing. It is no wonder that the legendary British adventurer and naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) fell in love with the creatures at first sight.
“I have found the most beautiful and extraordinary bird in this island. At first, I wished to keep it a secret, but I could not bear to hold this back from you. I have got here a new bird of paradise! Of a new genus! Quite unlike any thing yet known, very curious and handsome! I think this is the best finding thus far,” Wallace wrote exuberantly to a friend back in England.
In his eight years of traveling around the archipelago (1854-1862), Wallace kept detailed records on 125,660 specimens, including 310 mammals, 100 reptiles, 8,050 birds, 7,500 shellfish, 13,000 butterflies, 83,200 beetles and 13,400 other insects. A majority of these species were found in the region that later became known as Wallacea.
Wallacea is a biogeographical region comprising Sulawesi, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara and is home to at least 697 sedentary and migratory bird species. Of these, 249 are endemic to the region. Most are birds of paradise, closely related to the cenderawasih of the Paradisaeidae family. Wallace discovered the standardwing in 1858 during a trip to Bacan Island in Halmahera.
He kept a number of these specimens in his private collection and offered others to European collectors and museums. At the same time, he developed his ideas on natural selection. In 1855, Wallace arrived at his conclusion regarding biological evolution and spent the next three years developing his grand theory. On February 1858, while being treated for fever in Dodinga village, West Halmahera, North Maluku, Wallace experienced his eureka moment on natural selection.
Wallace’s mind wandered to the books that he had read, including Thomas Malthus’s Essays on the Principle of Population, which explained that human population was kept under control by disease, war and starvation. He was also reminded of Lyell’s Principles of Geology, which explained the Earth’s long age and small shifts that had accumulated through the millennia. While his body shivered from chills, Wallace arrived at his conclusion that the strongest species would survive while the weakest would perish.
Two days later, Wallace handwrote the 20-page paper titled “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type”. He sent it to British naturalist Charles Darwin, whom he admired. Wallace’s idea was read his paper at the Linnean Society in London on July 1, 1858. Fifteen months later, Darwin published his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Wallace researcher George W Beccaloni of the Department of Life Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London, the United Kingdom, said that Wallace wrote thousands of articles and 22 books throughout his life. The Malay Archipelago (1869), his most famous book, contains detailed descriptions of the diverse flora, fauna and peoples of the Nusantara archipelago. Although he was the co-discoverer of natural selection alongside Darwin, Wallace never enjoyed Darwin’s level of fame.
Nurturing wealth
Indonesian Association of Sciences (AIPI) chair Sangkot Marzuki said that Wallace’s greatest legacy in Indonesia had been mostly forgotten. Wallace’s scientific researches, often ranked among the greatest scientific work of the 19th century, should have been a whip for the Indonesian people to improve their knowledge of their natural wealth. Unfortunately, Sangkot said, not even the residences Wallace kept during his travels in the archipelago had been preserved.
Tropical botanist Peter Wilkie of the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh said that Indonesia was fortunate to possess the Wallacea region, with its extensive biodiversity. The region has 250 different tree species per hectare, much more than Great Britain’s 40 species per hectare. Unfortunately, today’s human population was a major threat to Wallacea’s biodiversity.
Wilkie’s concerns are not groundless. Statistically, the Wallacea human population has mushroomed from 14.1 million in 1971 to 29.1 million in 2010. By 2020, it is estimated that the region will be home to 33.7 million people.
Research and development improvement director general Muhammad Dimyati of the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry said Indonesia’s biodiversity had plenty of untapped potential. Lack of research funding was among the major reasons that it had not been explored. Indonesia’s annual research budget was only Rp 10.9 trillion (US$750.52 million), lower than the annual research budget of a cosmetics company, which could reach Rp 15 trillion.
Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago.
The attention of all relevant stakeholders is critical to ensuring the future sustainability of Wallacea’s amazing biodiversity and to keep it as pristine as it was when Wallace ventured the region on his journey to discovery.
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