How effective are Indonesian national parks at conserving biodiversity? A spatial analysis

In a world of declining biodiversity, Indonesia stands out in particular due to the richness of its diversity, and because of the rapidity of its decline. In response to this decline, Indonesia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, and additional protected areas have been established, with the most significant category being national parks. This study sets out to investigate how effective national parks are at conserving biodiversity, and examining whether they have improved since the Convention on Biological Diversity was ratified. Current literature on the issue primarily considers issues relating to management and illegal activities, and frequently focuses on only parts of Indonesia, whilst other issues such as location and design are overlooked. The literature also does not establish whether national park effectiveness can be established. To address this, an exploratory methodological stance is adopted, a variety of methods are considered, with two key approaches, geographical information systems and remote sensing being selected. Following guidance on factors that effect protected area effectiveness, the author develops new, experimental methods which investigate different aspects of national park effectiveness, with the intention of exploring the methods' utility and spatial analysis more generally. In particular they analyse ecosystem representativeness, the quality of the environment protected, their size and shape, their connectedness and how much encroachment has occurred. Despite the limitations of the methods, the study proves that there is utility and potential in combining geographical information systems and remote sensing methods and that national parks can be evaluated in terms of biodiversity effectiveness. The paper establishes that there are design and location issues with national parks and that they have not generally improved noticeably regarding design and location since the CBD was ratified. It also establishes the limitations of spatial analytical techniques, advocating a multi disciplinary approach to investigating this issue, and points to further study and other methods that would assist this investigation