Expert Warns Pollinator Extinction in Indonesia

TheIndonesia.id - Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB)'s agricultural expert Professor Damayanti Buchori reminded the potential for the extinction of food plants pollinating animals in Indonesia such as bees, birds, bats, and various types of insects that could affect food availability in the future. Pest attacks on plants that are increasingly widespread show that indication.

According to Professor Buchori in a talk with reporters in commemoration of the 2022 World Environment Day at the IPB Campus Collection Park Resto in Bogor City, Saturday, June 4, 2022, the pollinators' decline can be seen, one of which is the attack of pests on plants. In Indonesia, millions of locusts have damaged crops in East Sumba and are now moving to Central Sumba and Southwest Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara Province.

"In Indonesia, one of the important events that also indicates environmental damage is the outbreak of the locust pest in East Sumba," she said.

Climate change and changes in ecosystems in the area are the ones to blame. Damayanti explained, that there is a decline in bee populations which became known as the "Global Pollinator Decline" in several European and American countries.

In fact, more than 75 percent of food crops need pollinators to produce fruit. The factor that becomes a concern of all parties, she said, is the shortage of food crops can trigger a world crisis so that wars within countries and between countries can occur because of hunger. If there is no real action from the world's population to protect the environment, in the next 50 years it is certain that there will be major damage that will harm humans.

Pollinating animals are starting to decrease as their habitats are disturbed due to natural disasters caused by humans, such as floods and droughts due to not using water wisely and development that is not in favor of environmental sustainability. What is needed now is human wisdom in responding to the crisis conditions on earth.

"What we need is the 'political will', the willingness to implement the principles of sustainability," she said.

On June 5, 2022, as Environment Day, Damayanti hopes that the call for the earth is only one and that humans have the responsibility to take care of this earth as well as possible for future generations.