M K Poulsen/BirdLife Despite some inevitable logging, Halmahera retains around 70% of its forest cover. Zoom In

Putting Halmahera on the map

13-08-2003

Alfred Russel Wallace, after whom the Oriental/Australasian biogeographical region of Wallacea is named, knew it as Gilolo. Wallace called it "a large and little known island", which in many ways it still is, although since BirdLife and the British Birdwatching Fair (BBWF) brought it to the birding world's attention in 1994, Halmahera has begun to figure on the itineraries of bird tour companies. (In recent years it has not been safe to visit because of ethnic and religious conflicts.)

In The Malay Archipelago, Wallace commented, "The character of its natural history proves it to be a rather ancient land, since it possesses a number of animals peculiar to itself or common to the small islands around it, but almost always distinct from those of New Guinea on the East, of Ceram on the South, and of Celebes (Sulawesi) and the Sula Islands on the west." Because of these unique species, Halmahera is at the heart of the Northern Maluku Endemic Bird Area - the group of islands Wallace knew as the Moluccas.

Halmahera is the largest island in Maluku province, between Irian Jaya and Sulawesi in Eastern Indonesia. The individual islands have very high levels of species endemism, and Halmahera has around 25 endemic birds. Four of these are the only representatives of their respective genera: the Invisible Rail Habroptila wallacii, White-streaked Friarbird Melitograis gilolensis, Paradise-crow Lycocorax pyrrhopterus, and Wallace's Standardwing Semioptera wallacii.

"There's still a fantastic opportunity to secure the best areas for conservation" —Richard Grimmett, Head of BirdLife's Asia Division

Halmahera retains much of its forest cover: some 70 percent, compared with 15 percent on Java, and 35 percent on Sumatra. "There's still a fantastic opportunity to secure the best areas for conservation," says Richard Grimmett, Head of BirdLife's Asia Division. However, Halmahera is also the largest island in Indonesia without protection. "For some reason Halmahera was put to one side as protected areas were established in Irian Jaya, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Kalamantan."

The BBWF enabled BirdLife to raise the profile of Halmahera, pointing out this gap in the protected area system, and to undertake the fieldwork necessary to put forward proposals for site conservation. "We looked at bird distributions, habitat cover and local use pressures," Richard explains. "We invested a lot of effort and resources in building local support, including provincial and local government, local communities and private sector interests. This culminated in proposals for two national parks on Halmahera. In parallel, we got support from the World Bank, which we persuaded to focus on this region. They undertook two projects, one on rural development, and a protected areas programme."

Unfortunately all this work came to a halt because of civil unrest in 1998 and 1999. "Halmahera itself experienced serious unrest, in which tens of thousands of people were killed. It became almost impossible to proceed at a political level with the protected areas proposal, and the World Bank was forced to cancel its rural development project, and to put on hold and eventually cancel the protected areas programme."

P Jepson Logging operations on Halmahera, Indonesia, are focused on lowland forest, the most important habitat for many bird species. Zoom In

"The value of the work funded by the Birdfair has not been lost"

But BirdLife has continued to maintain its focus on this region. "In the past few months we've opened discussions once again with both the Indonesian government and the World Bank about returning to the agenda. The value of the work funded by the Birdfair has not been lost, although it's been put back four years. Now the area is more stable, we're going to take it forward again."

The forest is still in good shape, Richard says. "The unrest has meant that the more damaging proposals for Halmahera could not move forward either. For example a mining project, which would have threatened the area, hasn't happened. Logging concessions have had to close down, and the government hasn't been able to bring in investment for land clearance for oil palms and other plantation crops. We must make sure we're back in there, focusing on our priorities, at the same time as everyone else is back there looking at the economic opportunities."

Before the troubles began, BirdLife had discounted the possibility of buying up logging concessions to protect them from exploitation. "Our protected area proposals included a number of logging concessions in lowland forest areas, which the government had already granted. They would probably have excluded these from the protected area. In Indonesia, it's always the lowland forest that's under greatest threat - it's easier for the government to designate montane forest for protection, although this tends to be less valuable biologically. Now we're wondering, could we buy out the lowland forest concessions?"