印尼自然保护科学处于危险中(上)

For Science, Quickly, I’m Christopher Intagliata.

欢迎来到《科学快播》，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Indonesia’s more than 17,000 islands contain the largest expanse of tropical rain forest in Southeast Asia. And they’re teeming with biodiversity.

印度尼西亚坐落着17000多个岛屿，拥有东南亚面积最大的热带雨林，雨林内充满着生物多样性。

These forests are just incredibly rich.

这些雨林物种非常丰富。

Conservation scientist Erik Meijaard has worked for more than three decades in these forests.

自然保护科学家埃里克·迈贾拉德在这些雨林中工作了30多年。

He heads up the scientific consulting company Borneo Futures.

他是科学咨询公司Borneo Futures的负责人。

It’s hot and sweaty and humid, but there’s so much diversity in these forests.

虽然这里炎热潮湿，但是这些森林里有着多样的物种。

There’s bird calls everywhere. Everywhere you look, you see life.

四周围绕着鸟鸣声，放眼望去，处处可见生命。

Bill Laurance is a tropical ecologist at James Cook University in Australia.

比尔·劳伦斯是澳大利亚詹姆斯·库克大学的热带生态学家。

The forests are just festooned with plants, animals, birds.... everything’s just chirping away.

森林里到处都点缀着各种各样的植物、动物，鸟儿......一切都在啁啾声中远去。

It’s just this giant bastion of life.

这是一个巨大的生命之堡。

That life— is on the brink, because Laurance says Indonesia has an incredible concentration of the world’s endangered and critically endangered species.

这里的生命濒临灭绝，劳伦斯说，印度尼西亚集中了世界上许多的濒危物种与极度濒危物种。

It’s sort of an incredible magical place, in one sense, but one that’s greatly imperiled right now.

从某种意义上说，这是一个极具魔力之地，但现在这个地方却处于危险中。

And then there’s another sort of peril—one facing the scientists who do conservation work there.

还存在另一种危险——在雨林做保护工作的科学家也面临着危险。

That’s the topic of a recent letter Laurance and Meijaard published in the journal Current Biology.

这是劳伦斯与迈贾拉德最近发表在《当代生物学》期刊上的信件主题。

Writing with several Indonesian colleagues, they warn that conservation science in the island nation is under threat.

印尼的几位同事也共同参与了这封信的书写，他们警告称这个岛国的自然保护科学正在受到威胁。

We were seeing colleagues and researchers we knew and respected being essentially booted out of Indonesia …Including Meijaard himself.

我们正在目睹我们认识和尊敬的同事和研究人员被赶出印度尼西亚……包括迈贾拉德本人。

We published a critical letter in an Indonesian newspaper where we questioned the Ministry of Forestry and Environment’s statements about growing orangutan populations,

我们在印尼一家报纸上发表了一封批评信，我们质疑林业部与环境部关于猩猩数量不断增长的声明，

and we said, “Look, we’ve been looking at this problem for over 30 years, and orangutan populations are simply not growing....All three species of orangutans are in continuous decline.”

我们说：“看，我们已经关注这个问题30多年了，而猩猩的数量根本没有增长......这三种猩猩的数量都在持续减少。”

He says the government responded quickly by banning him and his colleagues from doing research in the country.

他称，印尼政府迅速作出反应，禁止他与同事在印尼进行研究。