REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - About 393 Indonesian indigenous plants are prone to extinction. Deputy of Biological Sciences at Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Bambang Prasetya, said the cause of biodiversity loss was due to over-exploitation of natural resources.

"Habitat loss and degradation, invasion of alien species, pollution and disease, and illegal logging also cause the biodiversity loss," Bambang Prasetya said on Wednesday.

Land conversion, he continued, also contributed to biodiversity crisis as their habitat was turned into plantation, farm, housing, and infrastructural development. The condition becomes worse by industrial pollution and natural disaster, such as volcano, landslide, and tsunami.

"The excessive use of pesticide in agriculture such as in potato farming in highland endangers the life of fish in the river below the mountain. It happens to almost all potato farming in mountain," he explained. In addition, mining also causes biodiversity crisis as it erode the earth including plants and microbe inside.

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