Transcriber: Anh Pham Reviewer: Dian P.
When we talk about climate change,
animals are not often mentioned.
The forest biodiversity and its laws are still overlooked
and sometimes it’s kind of the last topic of discussion.
The most often talked about solutions — many things —
but also including to plant more and more trees.
But this is not so wrong.
What’s the point of having more and more trees
without the animals within it?
What’s the point of having forests that are almost empty?
For us here forests are far away.
For it to be entered, to deliver us clean air,
I think we totally get it.
But if one animal disappears in that far forest,
will this makes sense,
we wonder, why should we even care?
So let me bring you all to the jungle of Sulawesi,
which is full of unique animals that we cannot find anywhere else in the world.
I can’t really blame anyone, though, because the nature of these animals.
They are going to extinct, but we barely heard of them.
One animal appears when the sun sets,
only flying through the darkness.
One animal creeps slowly under the traps.
No sound at all.
And one animal creeps through the leaves right up there in the canopy.
Those tortoises and hose opossums,
are the example of diversity that we are starting to lose.
They are hunted down to the brink of extinction
for commercially traded to be consumed,
to be cut back for such a short term enjoyment
without realizing what we are losing in the long-term.
Animals are the farmers of the forest,
Without them, the forest will not function.
They will not regenerate and will not optimally store carbon
to help us mitigate the climate change.
So all the time without these animals dispersing the seeds,
fewer and fewer trees to grow to replace the dead ones.
And we start to lose our single form of oxygen.
And it turns out there are more, like coffee, chocolate, and lastly,
the Indonesian most beloved fruit: durian.
So what’s actually going on?
So while farmers are sleeping during the night,
the bats come out from the forest or nearby cave to the coffee plantation.
to eat the insects that are fast attacking the coffee beans and leaves.
We may not notice,
but without these bats, the coffee production can fall.
A study in Mexico shows that in wet seasons,
when they did experiments to exclude the bat from the coffee trees,
the insect density increased by 80 percent.
And these costly damages and eventually the coffee production increase.
So this coffee? How about chocolate?
It turns out bats also protect the chocolate trees from the insects.
They do it hand in hand with the books the bachelor tapestries during the night,
while the birds pack the the chocolate trees during the day.
A research in Central Sulawesi proves that without these animals,
the chocolate production decreased by 30 percent or in simple work with the birds
and bats because of their free services.
Quote unquote, the farmers can save up to eight million rupiah,
or close to 700 dollars per hectare per year.
So can we imagine without these birds and bats, the chocolate that we enjoy,
their price can increase. So after delving into chocolate and the coffee,
let's talk about durian still in the darkness.
But the largest size of bats, they feed on durian flower nectar.
And like bees pollinating flowers, the bats pollinating durian flowers.
And these flowers only bloom during the night.
So they need animals that are active during the night,
which are bats because of my combine last two at bats and durian.
I study the relationship in Sulawesi, and I found out that the bats visitations,
the dead flowers are actually key for the durian to develop as
a fruit's fruit that we enjoy,
and this service can work up to $100 per hectare per fruiting season
or close to two million rupiah.
And we have witness in many parts of the world because of
the declining populations of natural pollinators.
The humans need to do their own nations. So let's do some imaginations.
This do the flowers only bloom during the night, one night,
hundreds of them at the same time.
Does it mean that we need at least hundreds of farmers or people climbing up
the trees during the night and pollinate the durian flowers one by one?
It sounds like Mission Impossible.
And what I said to you was just a services from a few pieces of bats.
We have more than two hundreds of bat species here in Indonesia.
A fifth of the total bat species in the world.
And it's not to mention the 800 mammal species with such number.
Imagine the diversity of services that
they give to us that perhaps weâve been
taking it for granted all these times and they need us
because many of them are facing extinction.
Or maybe now we realize we the more in Indonesia alone.
A quarter of the mammal species are actually threatening habitat loss
and hunting from commercial trade.
Are the two biggest factors in the islands of Sulawesi.
These problems, if worst because many of the animals are only
on this island losing them, meaning losing them completely from the world.
And this is what brought me was from Central Sulawesi to go back to my islands,
working together with my collaborator named and first kidnapped
the young people in the rural and urban sites also. And what we do?
Well, many things. But first thing first, we research the world of Sulawesi.
Animals are still a mystery,
but we need these informations in order to save them.
We need to know how many of them left in the wild.
What kind of habitat they like that we need to protect
and what kind of traps they are facing that we need to help to find
the right solutions. For example, in Bangi,
we researched the bat populations on a small island
and we realized that these populations has been declining due to hunting from
the people outside the village.
So we've worked together with the local youth as the champions to raise awareness
and appreciation for the work bats among the community and all times we built
a monthly record and to instill this.
Sense of pride of having these bats on the island,
the community say no to the hunters. And we begin with 300 bats and that island.
It sounds like a lot, but these bats really like to live together like
hundreds of them. Now that island become the safe haven for 30000 bats.
From our success lesson for the bat,
we expand our work to protect other unfortunate animals that still get our
attention. The forest and tortoise that we seen at the beginning in follow all
the way to Sally Babu at the border of the Philippines
and North Sulawesi to protect our coast is a marsupial with a pouch
so like kangaroo really high in the trees,
we realize that silence is important,
but building the connections with
the people is actually key to over lasting conservation efforts.
But how about us? What we can do like these tortoises?
Many of the animals are actually being demanded to be treated as pets.
So our own little profit with that famous song Lyric and Indonesia, the tin tintype,
how does Maliki or love doesn't mean to on?
So if you lost the animals, I think we should let them thrive in the wild.
Instead of keeping them in our house.
So let's revolutionise the true definition of love.
But I think our generations need to be proud
because we already have high awareness of climate change.
The latest survey in 2021 shows that Gen Z a million millennials,
70 percent of us believe that climate change is a crisis caused by human.
Previously, what life was overlooked?
But here we are realizing how important they are for us to our life.
So let's bring these animals this diversity into our daily conversations.
Of course, when we talk about climate change, but hey, when we enjoy Dorien,
when we eat chocolates or we see our coffee,
that can be way more expensive without those birds and those bats.
For those who like science and university,
we can collaborate with the research to study
the role of what life is still largely unknown in Indonesia,
and many can volunteer or donate a lot of conservation organizations.
But I think the more important whoever we want to be,
let's put nature and animals in our heart.
So, for example, a teacher who teach math not only using apples and oranges all
the time as the calculations, but use the number of monkeys,
instrument or number of thought, the insula I see.
And young business owners can ensure that the raw materials are sustainably sourced
and not using pesticides are harmful to birds and bats.
Last but not least, I think we should vote for
the right person with climate policy in mind and with animals in mind
and also in heart, our generations will make up considerable percentage of voters
in the elections. I think this is times that we need to ask critically
whether the candidates out there really reflect the things that we care about,
that we care about climate change.
Now, I hope we care about biodiversity,
and let's be an active advocate for these voiceless animals.
Let's see what life. Let's see if before us, and let's see if our future.