With 1,769 bird species at hand, Indonesia is irrefutably very rich in terms of biodiversity. The high number has brought Indonesia to the top four countries with most bird species in the world. But high in richness is meaningless when it’s low in awareness of bird conservation.
Out of nearly-two-thousand species, 160 are threatened to extinction. To prevent them from vanishing from their habitats, and to have people contribute in the effort to preserve and appreciate Indonesia’s biodiversity richness, it is necessary to raise the community awareness through various mediums.
To preserve wild birds in the country, Burung Indonesia has been contributing in conservation actions on site level, productive landscape management and production of natural restoration. In addition to those efforts, various public awareness on a variety communication medium is also being carried out, for example, stamp publishing.
On 15th July 2009, Burung Indonesia officially released a series of special edition stamps which were themed on Indonesian birds: “The Sumatran Forest Heritage”. The stamp release was a cooperation with the Forestry Department (previous name of the Ministry of Environmental and Forestry) and PT Pos Indonesia.
The Sumatran Forest Heritage features birds with high-threaten status, namely Rufous-collared Kingfisher (Actenoides concretus), Wrinkled Hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus corrugatus), Red-naped Trogon (Harpactes kasumba), Great Argus (Argusianus argus), White-winged Duck (Asarcornis scutulata) and Storm’s Stork (Ciconia stormi).
There were several things in consideration on the theme choice of the stamp edition. Aside from being one of islands with of the highest biodiversity in the world, Sumatra hosts more than 600 bird species with high risk to extinction.
Burung Indonesia menilai prangko merupakan medium yang efektif dan efisien untuk menjangkau seluruh lapisan masyarakat dan menembus batas teritorial negara. Medium ini juga memiliki nilai strategis sebagai sarana penyebaran informasi mengenai pelestarian kekayaan sumber daya alam hayati Indonesia.
Birds of Wallacea Edition
After the success of the first edition, the new stamp series on Indonesian birds was released in 2012, featuring endemic birds in Wallacea region.
The stamps were titled “Indonesia’s Endangered Birds”, highlighting the Drummer Rail (Habroptila wallacii), Elegant Sunbird (Aethopyga duyvenbodei), Siau Scops-owl (Otus siaoensis) and Flores Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus floris) on the series. Two of the last are birds with Critical status; only a step away from being extinct. The Elegant Sunbird, however, statused Endangered while the Drummer Rail is Vulnerable.
The population of four species above can only be found in the Wallacea, which its flora and fauna distribution is a mix between those that exist in Asia and Australia continents. Wallacea's distinctive position allows the region to have not only biodiversity of the two continents but also its own hundreds of endemic species.
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The publication of this article is part of a series of publications celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Burung Indonesia. On every 15th of every month in 2017, we will publish various articles about the best achievements that Burung Indonesia has achieved during 15 years of working at the home for 1769 bird species: Indonesia.,769 jenis burung ini.