- Indonesian authorities have arrested four Polish men for the illegal collection of centipedes and orchids in Borneo, an apparent violation of their tourist visas.
- Officials are investigating whether the men are linked to three other Polish nationals accused of illegally collecting and exporting a spider specimen from Malaysian Borneo that was later described as a new species.
- The case is the latest instance of foreign researchers allegedly abusing Indonesia’s lax visa-on-arrival facility to enter the country posing as tourists and carry out field research and specimen collection.
- The country’s research ministry says applying for a valid research permit is a quick and easy process, and insists it’s “not trying to make things difficult” for foreign researchers.
JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities have arrested four Polish nationals for illegally collecting insects and orchids in Borneo, in the latest instance of tourist visas allegedly being abused to carry out unpermitted research.
Immigration officials identified the men as Jakub Michal, Rafal Piotr, Grzegorz Mariusz, and Piotr Henryx and said they were arrested separately on March 18 and 19. Two were detained outside the Bukit Kelam conservation forest in West Kalimantan province, and the other two inside a cave in the forest.
Local news site Kompas reported that the men had collected orchids, tarantulas and centipedes, and that authorities had also seized from them six boxes containing tubes. They are currently being questioned by the West Kalimantan conservation agency, according to media reports.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve seen blue-legged and red-legged centipedes,” Hendra Saputra, an immigration officer in West Kalimantan’s Sanggau district, told Kompas on March 21.
He said the men entered Indonesia on March 2 on an Amsterdam-to-Jakarta flight. He said one of the men had previously visited Indonesia multiple times, while the others were there for the first time. All four were on a tourist visa, which doesn’t permit for the collection of plant or animal specimens for research purposes.
Indonesia’s ministry of research has called for them to be charged with carrying out illegal research and wildlife poaching. Indonesia’s 1990 Conservation Act prescribes a jail sentence of up to 10 years and fines of up to $14,000 for the illegal collection of wildlife.
The men also face possible charges of violating the immigration law, for which they could get up to five years in jail and fined up to $35,000.
Investigators are looking into whether the Polish men arrested in West Kalimantan are linked to three collectors from Poland involved in the allegedly illegal collection and export of a sample of a spider from Malaysian Borneo, which was later described as a new species of tarantula, Birupes simoroxigorum.
The latest arrest also comes on the heels of an alleged violation of Indonesian immigration law by U.S. and Australian researchers who, in January, photographed and filmed the world’s largest known bee, the Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto), in Indonesia’s North Maluku archipelago alive for the first time.
The research ministry said in February that the nature photographer Clay Bolt and his team had failed to obtain a research permit when they set out to search for the bee. Like the Polish men, they entered Indonesia with visas on arrival, typically issued to tourists, the ministry said. It is now considering banning Bolt and his team from entering the country again.
Sri Wahyono, the ministry official in charge of research permits, said it was regrettable that foreign scientists continued to abuse the visa-on-arrival facility to enter the country posing as tourists while carrying out field research and specimen collection.
“So many [foreign] researchers claim to be mere tourists, so it’s difficult to monitor,” she said as quoted by Kompas.
She cited another reported violation earlier this year, by a British researcher in North Kalimantan province who was subsequently deported. Authorities recorded 15 instances of visa violations of this kind by foreign researchers in 2018.
Wahyono said a research permit could be applied for online and processed in less than five days. The accompanying visa can be obtained in less than four days.
“The point is that we’re not trying to make things difficult [for foreign researchers],” she said.
Banner image of a Coelogyne asperata orchid courtesy of Indonesian conservationist Pungky Nanda Pratama.
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