JAKARTA (AP): Western nations share some responsibility for the destruction of Indonesia's forests and must pay compensation to put the damage right, the vice president said Friday.
Indonesia's forests are being cut down faster than anywhere else in the world to meet global demand for cheap timber and to plant palm trees to make biofuels. The deforestation has made the nation the third-highest emitter of carbon dioxide behind China and the United States.
"Foreigners always go on about Indonesia's high emissions, but don't forget they are also behind this," Jusuf Kalla told reporters. "Who first cut down the trees in Kalimantan (provinces)? It was developed countries like America and Japan, they are enjoying the wood."
"Developed countries must pay to improve it all," he told reporters, an apparent reference to a demand by Indonesia and other nations to be paid by wealthy countries to preserve their forests to help combat climate change.
While foreign companies have undoubtedly cut down Indonesian forests or bought illegal timber, they have mostly done so in cooperation with local outfits and with the permission of regional governments.
Kalla acknowledged the government felled trees for palm oil plantations in the past, saying it was "an accident of history. We have all sinned."
Next month, Indonesia is hosting a major U.N. climate change conference when countries will try to start negotiations on a replacement to the Kyoto protocol.
At the conference, Indonesia and other nations with rain forests will attempt to secure a commitment to be paid for reducing carbon emissions by not cutting or burning down trees under a carbon trading scheme.
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