SOME 600,000 FROGS ON BRINK OF EXTINCTION

Bogor, West Java, July 29 (ANTARA) - Some 10,000 to 600,000 frogs are on the brink of extinction and therefore efforts to conserve them are needed, according to Jansen Manansang, president of the Association of Southeast Asian Zoos (SEAZA).

"It has been established that Indonesia has the largest number of frog species in Asia and the second largest in the world after Brazil. However, certain species are on the brink of extinction," Manansang said on the sidelines of an international workshop on amphibians at Cisarua here on Wednesday.

The workshop was organized on July 27-29, by the Indonesian Safari Park, the Forestry Ministry, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), SEAZA, the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG), LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the International Union for Conservation of nature (IUCN), and the Indonesian Association of Zoos (PKBSI).

The rice-field frog is among the endangered species as farmers often use pesticides, forcing the frogs to leave the farming areas, he said.

The survival of frogs is also threatened due to the impact of global warming which promotes the spread of clyrid fungi infection throughout the world.

"This condition has caused the amphibians to come under pressure," he said.

This condition was identified in a global amphibian assessment which reported that of the total 5,918 amphibian species evaluated, 35 had become extinct, 1,896 species were in critical condition, and 2,604 on the brink of extinction.

Noticing the poor condition of amphibians, WAZA, CBSG and the Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) have set up an Amphibian Ark (AARK), which launched the Year of the Frog in 2008.

AARK had identified some 351 species of frogs but their conservation status is still unknown.

"The workshop is expected to issue recommendations on conservation of amphibians in Indonesia and familirazation of the role of amphibians in protecting the ecosytem balance," Jansen Manansang said.