NUSANTARA BIOSCIENCE ISSN: 2087-3948 Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 112-117 E-ISSN: 2087-3956 November 2015 DOI: 10.13057/nusbiosci/n070209 Land suitability for endemic plants in Kiara Payung Biodiversity Park, West Java TINA SAFARIA NILAWATI ♥ , WAHYU SURAKUSUMAH, VITA ANNISYA Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Education, Indonesian University of Education (UPI). Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229 Bandung 40154 Jawa Barat. Tel./Fax: +62-22-2001108.  email: nilawati.ts@gmail.com Manuscript was received: 27 August 2015. Revision was accepted: 23 October 2015. Abstract. Nilawati TS, Surakusumah W, Annisya V. 2015. Land suitability for endemic plants in Kiara Payung Biodiversity Park, West Java. Nusantara Bioscience 7: 112-117. According to Bappenas data (2003), there are 38.000 species of plants, 55% of which are endemic, in Indonesia. However, in Indonesia, there is severe environmental deterioration which may cause extinction of endemic plants. One way to solve the environmental degradation is conducting ex situ conservation, such as the establishment of Kiara Payung Biodiversity Park in Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia. The aim of this research was to determine land suitability of the park for plantation of endemic plants of West Java, Bouea macrophylla, Blumeodendron tokbrai, and Pterospermum javanicum, based on climatic and edaphic factors using GIS Arcview software. The climatic and edaphic data were taken from the field, and then they were overlaid in land unit maps with other parameters of every endemic plant species in West Java based on literature review. All data were interpreted based on land evaluation method by matching process. The results showed that the endemic plants B. macrophylla and P. javanicum are not suitable to be planted in Kiara Payung Biodiversity Park, while B. tokbrai is suitable to be planted in the entire blocks 5, 6, and 7 and part of blocks 2,3,4 and 8 of this park. Keywords: ArcGIS, Biodiversity Park, endemic plants, land suitability, West Java INTRODUCTION Due to its high endemism, Indonesia is categorized as a country having unique habitats for tropical plants with their various phenomena. However, Indonesia is also known for its high environmental deterioration level, especially species extinction and habitat destruction which result in biodiversity decline. Based on the data from the Ministry of Forestry, the rate of forest degradation in Indonesia was 2.83 million hectares per year during 2000-2005 (Departemen Kehutanan 2005). According to Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), the forest coverage of Java Island in 2009, was only 6.90% of the land, or 897,978.82 ha. Compared to the forest coverage in 2000, Java Island had undergone deforestation as much as 60.64% (FWI 2011). One way to solve the environmental deterioration is conducting ex situ conservation, such as the establishment of Biodiversity Park in Sumedang District. Before it was established as a Biodiversity Park, the land had been used for various activities related to biodiversity conservation. Evaluation of the park in 2012 was conducted with several parameters: size, altitude, ecosystem type, selection of main species, number of each main species, the suitability of supporting species in creating continuity of food sources for pollinators, planting distance among plants related to their height and size of crown, and land use type of the buffer zone (Roemantyo 2012). However, there had been no evaluation of land suitability of the main plant species in the park. The aim of this research was to determine land suitablity of the park for plantation of endemic plants of West Java, Bouea macrophylla (gandaria), Blumeodendron tokbrai (ki batok), and Pterospermum javanicum (bayur), based on climatic and edaphic factors using GIS Arcview software. It is hoped that the results of this study can be used for re-evaluation of the park and the park management can further develop this park to support environmental conservation using spatial data of land suitability for endemic plants more specifically from the available pixels. Then, the park management can determine which species should be planted. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was a descriptive one, using geographic information system (GIS) software, Arcview. Geographic Information System is designed to work with spatial data or geographic coordinates (Huisman and Rolf 2009). In conservation, GIS is very important for preparation, monitoring, analyses and evaluation of conservation. This study was conducted in February and June, 2014 in the Ecology Laboratory, Indonesian University of Education in Bandung and in Kiara Payung Biodiversity Park in Sindangsari Village, Sukasari Sub-district, Sumedang District, West Java, Indonesia. The measurements of climatic and edaphic parameters were done in 23 sites, each of which was separated 75 meters away from another (Figure 1). The measurements of organic parameters were done in the laboratory. Sampling was done using Purposive Sampling method, in which selection of samples were based on certain consideration (Palys 2008). In this study, the selection of