What Biodiversity Loss is

Biodiversity loss is a terminology to define the loss of biodiversity . Biodiversity loss occurs when any form of biodiversity (such as genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity) is reduced in a given area through processes such as death (including extinction), destruction, or human displacement. Declines occur at various scales, ranging from global extinctions to population extinctions, which cause a total decline in diversity at the same scale. 

Biodiversity loss is related to the quantity of local food. The paradigm shift in viewing and appreciating nature is the cause of ecosystem degradation. Nature has values ​​that include: (i) worldviews, which are the ways in which humans understand and interact with the world; (ii) knowledge systems, which are collections of knowledge, practices and beliefs such as academic, indigenous and local knowledge systems that are embodied in worldviews; (iii) broad values, which are moral principles and life goals that guide human-nature interactions; (iv) specific values, which are assessments of the importance of nature in a particular context (instrumental, relational and intrinsic values); and (v) value indicators, which are quantitative measures and qualitative descriptors used to indicate the importance of nature in terms of biophysical, monetary or sociocultural metrics.

Changes in valuing nature and the reduction of human-nature relationships give rise to simplification of types and selection of types in food preparation. The choice of food ingredients ultimately becomes limited, and vice versa. Changes in the way and lifestyle of a person will collectively encourage the assessment of nature and all the resources in it only from the side of market prices.

If the utilization of biodiversity focuses on things that can be traded, human relations with biodiversity for food, entertainment needs, and health care end in over-exploitation. In fact, all of that starts from the documentation of local community knowledge in the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) or Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) system.

Sullivan’s study (2013) confirmed that this happened because the existence of LEK and TEK in local market mechanisms was captured and replaced by global markets that forced the development and distribution of knowledge about the value and benefits of biodiversity to become less even. Control of access and weak regulation of benefit sharing over protected natural resources, especially in the context of biodiversity, caused an increase in the rate of loss.

What van der Eng (2020) wrote about the decline in food production on the island of Java is one of the proofs. Not to mention if we look at the case of the utilization of wildlife biodiversity such as pangolin meat and scales, the same fate as the voice and color of feathers on birds, horns on rhinos, skin on crocodiles, and ivory on elephants which are over-exploited. In fact, efforts to restore the benefits taken from each species for human needs are different. 

According to Bryant and Bailey (1997) in Third World Political Ecology , environmental change is closely related to global political economy. In the context of biodiversity loss , many historical records in most countries as reviewed by Anderson (2019), state that this is a political problem. The role of a technocentric state fails to balance economic needs with the sustainability of biodiversity use.

Summary for Policymakers of the Methodological Assessment Report on the Diverse Values ​​and Valuation of Nature of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2022) states that economic and political decisions are dominated by a narrow set of understandings of biodiversity values, namely the priority of natural values ​​traded in the market. 

When connected to the current food concept and problems, the trap of resource utilization that focuses on economically valuable biodiversity ignores the diversity of food types that can be utilized. The focus of biodiversity utilization on market concepts creates an indirect neglect of nature.

Biodiversity that is not or has not been known for its economic value tends not to be managed and becomes open access . The community living around the peat ecosystem of Tahura Orang Kayo Hitam Jambi is an example. Limited knowledge about the form of peatland utilization encourages land sale and purchase transactions that change the landscape.

The lack of knowledge of ecosystem management does not only occur in the community, but also in government institutions or state actors at the local level. From the journal publication of Wulandari, et al. (2021) we know that the staff of Tahura OKH Jambi who manage peat ecosystems have weak knowledge of peat species diversity.

Biodiversity conservation is the answer to the challenges of sustainable development, climate change issues, and food security. After Brazil, Indonesia has the highest diversity of food sources in the world with various types of food crops. Yayasan Kehati (2015), Indonesia is ranked third with 77 types of food crops as a source of carbohydrates, 75 types as a source of protein, 26 types of nuts, 389 types of fruits, 228 types of vegetables, 110 types of spices and herbs, and 40 types of beverage ingredients.

Since the beginning of the New Order, Indonesia has attempted to manage the number of species and regulate their population and availability to fulfill people’s lives. The Biodiversity Action Plan for Indonesia (BAPI) was drafted a year after Indonesia’s involvement in signing the first CBD convention in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and was revised to become IBSAP 2003-2020 as a guideline for the management and utilization of Kehati.

After 2020, new strategies and action plans are being developed until this year and will be aligned with the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). These targets are grouped into three major issues, namely:

1. Reducing the risk of threats to biodiversity by eight targets.
2. Fulfillment of community needs through sustainable utilization and benefit sharing as many as five targets.
3. Efforts to support the implementation and mainstreaming of issues 1 and 2 have ten targets.

Both local food diversification and biodiversity loss are two important issues that are interrelated in the perspective of political ecology. Biodiversity loss is not only about the existence of a particular species in a particular location, but also involves deeper questions such as “why it is not there”, “when it is lost”, “what circumstances cause it to be lost”, and “who loses it”. 

Therefore, the challenges in local food diversification do not only involve ecological factors, including the influence of the availability and support of biodiversity stocks, political and complex social aspects. The actions taken for recovery efforts are also very dependent on politics and the situation. These challenges need to be addressed through cooperation between the government and other stakeholders to create an environment that supports local food diversification. 

Indigenous and local communities must be fully involved. The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5) report identifies a number of reasons, the most important of which is the importance of indigenous and local communities in maintaining biodiversity and implementing sustainable use. 

Failure to achieve targets is due to neglect of the role, including limited recognition in national level biodiversity strategies and action plans, and even if there is, as the so-called paradigm shift, it is only in the form of a ‘short-term project’ that is not really deeply rooted.

Various policies manifested in the form of laws and regulations, especially in Indonesia, in reality do not regulate technical matters on how to grow ecosystems in nature, but rather focus on how human behavior faces and manages ecosystems and the environment properly and as it should be. This means that there are values, ways of life, knowledge, resource management and management systems, economies and technologies of indigenous peoples and local communities that can be the basis for the success of all the world’s Sustainable Development Goals.

We need significant changes in the way we interact with nature, including serious changes in our diets and food production systems. In times of high uncertainty, it is essential that we maintain genetic diversity through strict management of biodiversity in nature to avoid a food crisis.

To overcome these challenges, collaboration between the government, local communities, and other stakeholders is needed, as well as appropriate policy support, incentives, and sustainable natural resource management. The political ecology perspective provides important insights into understanding and addressing the problems of biodiversity loss and the difficulties of local food diversification

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