Urgent support to save the largest single block of forest habitat for the Javan hawk eagle in Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, West Java, Indonesia
Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park (GHSNP) is the single largest remaining tropical rain forest in Java (113.000 ha). Hydrologically, the park is the source of 117 rivers flowing to Jakarta and Banten in western Java. Ornithologically, GHSNP is of global importance because nearly all Javan endemic birds and other rarities occur there and, more specifically, the park is the largest single block of suitable habitat in the world for the Javan hawk eagle, Spizaetus bartelsi which is listed as an Endangered species by the IUCN.
In a public hearing held between the Department of Forestry and the Commission IV of the Indonesian Parliament and also attended by the local government authority (Bupati, Head of District), it was revealed that Lebak District (Kabupaten Lebak) presented a proposal to convert about 15.000 ha of national park area into mining, plantation, and infrastructure development.
If accepted, this proposal will have serious negative ecological and hydrological impacts including:
- significant reduction of the watershed buffer area within the national park which functions to limit flooding downstream (Jakarta and other cities); and
- loss of an important block of forest habitat for three flagship species, the Javan hawk eagle, Javan leopard and Javan gibbon, and other endemic wildlife.
This conversion will reduce the forests of the national park (current area is 113.357 ha); especially the forest of Banten Province, which now has app 201.000 ha (24.6%) of forest will be reduced to 186.000 ha (22.7%). This reduction is contrary to the efforts to save the remaining forests in Java which, according to carrying capacity assessment of the island should be at least 30% covered with forest: whereas the remaining coverage is now only 17.2%. Clearly, and in Halimun-Salak National Park conservation context, any further conversion will only result in unacceptable additional damage and significant loss of forest habitat.
Therefore, we are fully supporting the following parties:
- Commission IV of Indonesian People Representative in parliament to stop any land conversion which is not in line with the function of the areas specified in Halimun-Salak National Park;
- Ministry of Forestry in Indonesia to
- refuse such conversion because it will cause serious ecological damage, loss of biodiversity in Java, and set a bad precedent by this permission;
- reconsider financial support given by the Ministry of Forestry through specially allocated forestry fund scheme (Dana Alokasi Khusus Kehutanan) to Lebak District (Kabupaten Lebak)
- Bupati Lebak (Head of District) and his colleagues to withdraw their proposal for this conversion to avoid conflict with the existing spatial planning and the many stakeholders who value the intact status of Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park and the biodiversity, hydrology, and other ecological services that it supports.
