The Missouri Botanical Garden is working with local communities in Indonesia to help save threatened forests in one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth.
Sulawesi, Indonesia is a large island located in the Wallacea Biodiversity Hotspot between Asia and Australia. Thanks to its isolated location, Sulawesi is home to hundreds of species that occur nowhere else in the world. Today, only 20% of its forests remain. Those forests could disappear altogether due to nickel mining to support increased demand for electric vehicles.
Garden scientists recently embarked on a project in the Tompotika region of Sulawesi that aims to work with local communities to implement realistic, sustainable, and long-lasting conservation strategies that also support livelihoods for local people.
“We are thrilled to work hand-in-hand with the communities in the Heart of Tompotika, learn from them about local plants, and co-develop botanical knowledge that supports conservation and livelihoods,” said Carmen Puglisi, Plant Taxonomy and Evolution Curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden. “I am proud to see how the Missouri Botanical Garden’s extensive institutional knowledge allowed us to form this team of amazing female scientists, working together across disciplines and creating real-time impact.”
Right photo: From left to right, Irvan Fadli Wanda and Muhammad Rifqi Hariri, Carmen Puglisi, Deby Arifiani, Kate Armstrong, Natalie Konig arrival in Luwuk.
Puglisi leads the Sulawesi project with Garden scientists Laura Toro from the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, and Kate Farley and Natalie Konig in the Garden’s William L. Brown Center, as well as global colleagues and local partners.
The Heart of Tompotika
At the eastern tip of the unique K-shaped island of Sulawesi is the Tompotika Peninsula, home to about 70,000 people. “The Heart of Tompotika” is a mostly forested area of about 80,000 hectares. Only half of the forests, home to many endemic species, are in protected areas.
An endemic species exists only in one specific geographic area, and nowhere else in the world.
The project focuses on two high-priority conservation areas: 8,000 hectares on the slopes of Mt. Tompotika and 30,000 hectacres near the coast. The larger area is home to multiple villages and is a critical foraging habitat for the endangered, endemic Maleo bird.
Indonesia Paradise under threat
Several small-scale mines are already present in Tompotika, with dozens of new sites proposed in the region. Mining poses detrimental ecological and societal effects in Tompotika. Mining contaminates water supplies, harms freshwater and marine ecosystems, and threatens the forests communities rely on for their livelihood.
A changing climate adds additional threats. Local communities seek sustainable, climate-resilient income sources through the cultivation of economically important species. This includes food crops for both humans and native animals. While some welcome opportunities that nickel mines could bring, others prefer to maintain their homes, land, and lifestyle.
“As tough decisions need to be made, we were invited by a local bird conservation NGO to describe the local plant diversity and its value to humans and all other animals that inhabit the Heart of Tompotika,” Puglisi said.
Gathering Data in Tompotika
The Garden formed a multidisciplinary team of global experts that also includes Kate Armstrong, Assistant Curator at New York Botanical Garden, Elliot Gardner, Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University, Deby Arifiani, Researcher at the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency, and Fabian Brambach, Curator at University of Göttingen. The U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provided a grant for the team to collect and characterize the local flora.
To fully understand Tompotika’s plant biodiversity, scientists will use a number of techniques to document plant life and the threats it faces.
Botanical Inventories
A botanical inventory is comprehensive documentation of all plant species in a specific geographic area.
To survey Tompotika, the team of scientists will collect plants from each site, prioritizing those with flowers and fruits. Scientists take a cutting from a plant or dig up small plants. They dry the specimens and mount them on paper alongside collection records.
Fruits and flowers are key plant traits that make it easier for scientists to identify a plant species. Scientists return to the same sites multiple times in a year to collect as many fruiting and flowering species as possible. They will collect sterile species if it’s all that is available.
They will then send specimens to Herbarium Bogoriense, Indonesia’s national herbarium, for scientists to identify. Unidentifiable specimens, which could represent species new to science, go to specialists for further review.
Extinction Assessments
Extinction assessments predict the likelihood that a species will disappear, or face a high threat of disappearing. Garden scientists use International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List standards for assessments.
Did you know? The Missouri Botanical Garden is an official member of the Red List Partnership. It is one of only 15 partners worldwide, and the only North American botanical institution.
To make this prediction, scientists look at population size and geographic range, and estimate if a population is increasing or declining and what threats it faces. These assessments help conservationists prioritize species.
Capacity building
Earlier this year, the team built a plant nursery to grow economically valuable native plants. The nursery is managed by two local horticulturists, Yuli and Riyal Kunjae, hired for this project, and supported by local NGO partner Alliance for Tompotika Conservation. Currently, Juli and Riyal are looking after 228 seedlings of 21 species. In 2027, once cultivation protocols are well established, they will deliver a training workshop and formally hand over the nursery to the community.
Sharing Knowledge
Botanical inventory data will be combined with information from the real plant experts in Tompotika—the people who have lived there for generations. The Garden’s team will document traditional ecological and biocultural knowledge. They will produce written records of the deep connection connection between the community and the forest. These records will take the shape of books for children and adults, checklists, and forest management plans, which will inform conservation priorities and facilitate climate resilience. Traditional knowledge will play a key role in all conservation strategies.
The team also wants to work with the youngest generation in Tompotika to ensure they understand, appreciate, and protect the unique ecosystems in their backyard. Through the project, they plan to do outreach at local schools to share all they have learned so local students can continue to build on this work.
“We hope to equip the current and next generations of local stakeholders with the right tools to make critical decisions about the future of the Heart of Tompotika,” Puglisi said.
Catherine Martin
Senior Public Information officer
Many thanks to Carmen Puglisi, Laura Toro, Kate Farley, and Natalie Konig.
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