On Saturday, photos were posted on President Joko Widodo’s official Facebook account of Jokowi setting hundred of birds free in Bogor’s Botanical Gardens. In the message accompanying the photos, Jokowi says that on Saturday he bought 190 birds from Central Jakarta’s Pramuka Bird Market and released them into the gardens so that they could be protected and thrive. He also notes that removing birds and fish from their natural habitats can upset an ecosystem’s natural balance.
The President’s words must have struck many environmentalists as either ironic or hypocritical, given the fact that the Pramuka Bird Market is infamous for its illegal trade in endangered and protected birds as well as other wildlife.
A study released earlier this year by the wildlife advocacy group Traffic found that some 19,000 birds consisting of 206 species were being sold in Jakarta’s three major bird markets: Barito, Jatinegara and Pramuka. The report states, “The vast majority of the birds counted – 98 per cent – were native to Indonesia and harvested outside of the national harvest quota system or in direct violation of laws protecting select species.”
In other words, Pramuka and other bird markets in Jakarta are major culprits in the depletion of protected birds from Indonesia’s natural ecosystems. Traffic’s findings have also been supported by investigations by Tempo.
If the President really wants to make a statement about protecting wildlife in Indonesia, he should make sure that the wildlife he and other customers of Jakarta’s bird markets purchase have been obtained legally and in a way that supports the sustainability of our country’s natural ecosystems.
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