Pendekatan Baru dalam Penilaian Status Konservasi dan Penerapannya pada Ikan Pelangi Endemik Papua

Abstract

Periodically, the IUCN issued list of threatened species through its Red List. The threatened was done by assessment of species population size, reduction of its original habitats, and level of human pressures through hunting or harvest. In Indonesia, the Government has issued Governmental Decree No. 7/1999, which outlines criteria for determine species conservation and its protection status. This research proposed new approach that primarily based on the IUCN’s criteria on the assessment of habitat conditions (habitat loss and degradation). The proposed approach has been applied for the assessment of endemic Papua’s rainbowfishes. The threat assessment was done by overlay the known habitat of endemic rainbowfishes over the existing or planned large scale development activities using GIS (Geographic Information System). The overlaid areas of known rainbowfishes’ habitats and areas designated for each larger scale development activities were calculated to determine the percentage of the habitat under threat. A matrix was developed to capture existing conflicts, which along with other factor (size of original habitat) to determine conservation status of species assessed. The assessment indicated that 4 species as critical, eleven species indicated as endangered and another 15 species as vulnerable. Using this approach, number of species can be assessed in a short-time,as compared to any population studies as suggested in the IUCN criteria. This approach is more applicable to assess species with discrete habitats or well-defined distributions, such as species found lake, island or mountain ridge, and species that have detailed information on their distribution.