Robber fly - Nature photographer Thomas Shahan specializes in amazing portraits of tiny insects. It isn't easy. Shahan says that this Robber Fly (Holcocephala fusca), for instance, is "skittish" and doesn't like its picture taken.
Two motorcycle riders in Lumajang, East Java, observe Mount Semeru from a distance. The Center for Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation has announced that the frequency of lava eruptions at the crater have been decreasing, a sign of lava flow clogging that could lead to a violent eruption. (Antara/Sucipto)
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Agriculture Ministry said Indonesia has succeeded in achieving self-sufficiency in corn as domestic production has reached 90 percent of domestic demand.
"We have become self-sufficient in corn and have also begun exporting the product. However, it does not mean that imports have stopped. But domestic production now meets 90 percent of national demand. In 2008 we also exported corn," the ministry`s director general of food crops, Sutarto Alimoeso, said here on Wednesday.
In 2008 Indonesia imported 170,000 tons of corn and exported 150,000 tons.
He said exports could still increase. Fir this year the production target had been set at around 18 million tons of which one million tons would be exported.
The agriculture ministry was expecting domestic corn production to increase 14 percent this year.
National corn production in 2008 rose more than 22 percent from 16.3 million tons in the previous year.
He said the corn plantation area was increasing while productivity was also rising following the use of superior seeds.
Alimoeso said the government was subsidizing seed prices for rice, corn and bean farmers. Besides seed subsidy the government was also helping farmers to get superior seeds and seeds taken from national reserves.
For 2009, the agriculture ministry had allocated a corn seed subsidy for producing 4,266 tons of corn on an area of 225,534 hectares.
Seed assistance taken from national seed supply for the farmers will reach 5,595 tons for an area of 353,000 hectares. Direct top seed assistance totaling 7,610 tons meanwhile is allocated for an area of 507,333 hectares.
WWF-Canon / Alain COMPOST, 07 Apr 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia: A major Indonesian plantation company has become the country’s first certified maker of sustainable palm oil as WWF simultaneously collaborated with the Indonesian Department of Agriculture and others to hold a first-time regional training workshop for small producers.
Musim Mas Group Plantations, is the first company in Indonesia to demonstrate that some of its plantations comply with the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria, a set of standards that helps ensure that palm oil is produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way. Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil.
The RSPO brings together oil palm growers, oil processors, food companies, retailers, NGOs and investors to help ensure that no rainforest areas are sacrificed for new oil palm plantations, that all plantations minimize their environmental impacts and that basic rights of local peoples and plantation workers are fully respected.
“Musim Mas hopes that its certification will encourage more Indonesian companies to follow suit,” said Liantong Gan, head of Musim Mas’ sustainability department.
Musim Mas’ certification underscores the progress that WWF, and others, have made in efforts to increase the number of palm oil producers that are operating sustainably.
WWF works to ensure that oil palm expansion does not come at the expense of forests by promoting its expansion onto degraded lands. It is also helping to develop guidance for the small holders representing 40 per cent of Indonesia’s palm oil growers.
"WWF is pleased to see progress in Indonesia, but there is much work to be done before sustainable palm oil can be a mainstream reality," said Ian Kosasih, Director of the Forest Programme at WWF Indonesia.
"WWF Indonesia will continue to cooperate with stakeholders to build the capacity of farmers to implement the RSPO guidelines, promote the use of idle or degraded land for oil palm expansion, and put pressure on those companies that persist in converting natural forest for oil palm expansion," Kosasih said.
WWF helped organize the training for 21 training representatives from small Indonesian palm oil plantations from West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Jambi, and West of Kalimantan.
WWF held the training in collaboration with the Indonesian Smallholders Working Group, the Department of Agriculture, the RSPO Indonesia Liaison Office, Sawit Watch, and various certification bodies. The training stemmed from a memorandum of understanding signed on Feb. 17 between the RSPO and the Indonesian Department of Agriculture.
The objective was to educate trainers on the threats of oil palm plantations to the region’s forests and local species, to motivate smallholders to comply with the RSPO P & C, and to provide practical ways smallholders can comply with these sustainability criteria, including mitigating the wildlife human conflict that often occurs happens in oil palm plantations.
In addition, a syllabus and training modules were developed so that the representatives could take them back to their operations for educational purposes.
The Indonesian Smallholders Working Group is planning to hold further trainings in the five provinces represented at the March training, and follow them up with audits.
As a founding member of the RSPO, WWF has worked since 2002 with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the RSPO standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of high conservation value (HCV) areas.
The workshop and Musim Mas’ certification come only months after the first shipment of RSPO certified sustainable palm oil arrived in Europe from southeast Asia.
Several European companies, including Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Albert Heijn, have already made strong public commitments to buy certified sustainable palm oil.
The next RSPO Roundtable meeting and the 6th General Assembly of RSPO members will be held in November 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Earthquakes rocked North Sulawesi and West Papua on Saturday, but did not trigger any tsunami, according to the National Meteorological and Geophysics Office here Saturday.
North Sulawesi was hit by a 6.5-magnitude temblor on Saturday at 2.31 am Western Indonesian Time (WIB). The quake`s epicenter was located at 4.99 degrees northern latitude and 127.04 degrees eastern longitude, at a depth of 10 km below sea level, around 117 Km northeast of Melonguane, North Sulawesi.
West Papua was jolted by a 5.1-magnitude temblor at 1.09 pm Western Indonesian Time (WIB). The quake`s epicenter was located at 0.73 degrees southern latitude and 133.30 degrees eastern longitude, at a depth of 101 km, around 86 Km northwest of Manokwari town, West Papua.
On Friday (April 3), Palu, Central Sulawesi Province, was jolted by two consecutive earthquakes in the wee hours, causing a number of local residents to panic and wonder about the temblors` magnitudes.
The first earthquake was 4.4 on the Richter scale and the second was 4.9 on the Richter scale.
Indonesia, the world`s largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval.
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Moderate quake shakes East Nusa Tenggara
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/02/2009 7:34 PM
An environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) has on Thursday called for the government to intervene in the prevention of further wildlife poaching in Sumatra following the death of two female elephants at an elephant conservation center in Bengkulu last week.
"Elephant and tiger poaching is increasing and the death of the female elephants wasn't the first. At least seven others were killed at the conservation park between 2004 and 2007," representative of wildlife protection NGO ProFauna Radius Nursidi said.
He added that the perpetrators were never caught nor processed.
Apart from endangered elephants, the second most poached wildlife animal is the Sumatran tiger.
A survey conducted by ProFauna in March this year revealed 12 tiger snares were found around a conservation park in Bengkulu.
One of these snare had successfully trapped a Bornean leopard in 2007.
The authorities were informed of the perpetrator but no legal recourse was taken.
“The police need to fully enforce the law on wildlife crime. Without law enforcement, elephant and tiger poaching in Bengkulu will persist”, Nursidi argued.
Under the law, poaching and trading protected species is against the law and offenders are liable to a maximum of five years in jail and a Rp 100 millions (10,000 USD) fine. (amr)
By IRWAN FIRDAUS
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Two Sumatran elephants were found dead with gunshots to the head in a protected forest in western Indonesia, a conservationist said Tuesday.
Park rangers have been riding the animals for weeks in the Kerinci National Park and surrounding areas to prevent entry by illegal loggers, who have been clearing jungles at an alarming rate to make way for palm oil and other commercial plantations.
Though provincial conservation chief Andi Basrul refused to speculate on a motive for the shootings, he said they appeared to have been carried out by professional poachers.
Basrul said the Sumatran elephants were both 20-year-old females. Rangers found their bodies on March 24, hours after they were used for a patrol and several hundred yards (meters) from their camp.
Conservationists believe there are less that 3,000 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild.
"It is a big blow to our efforts to protect these endangered animals," Basrul said.
The habitats of Sumatran elephants are quickly shrinking due to illegal logging and land clearing. That has led, increasingly, to clashes with humans, often because the starving animals stray into villages and destroy crops in their search for food.
An investigation will be carried out into the latest attack in Bengkulu province on Sumatra island, said Yatim Suyatmo, a police spokesman.
Jungle operation: Sr. Comr. Zainal Paliwang, head of Riau Water Police Directorate (left) leads illegal logging raid operation in Tohor River kanals in Tebing Tinggi, Meranti district in Riau, on Tuesday. Antara/FB Anggoro
Riau Water Police have confiscated 200 tons of illegal logs, allegedly cut down from Meranti and Bengkalis regencies areas, during a two-day raid operations.
Sr. Comr. Zainal Paliwang, head of Riau Water Police Directorate, told Antara that they have named and arrest two people as suspects.
“We received a tip-off from the local resident and we later begun an investigation that lasted three weeks. The logs were found at four different locations,” he said.
On Monday, the police confiscated eight tons of logs from a location on the banks of Tanjung Sari river in Tanjung Samak district in Bengkalis. They also arrested two men, Yamin, 39, and Edo Tampubolon, 68, who were on a tug boat to deliver logs to Tanjung Balai Karimun in Riau Islands.
The rest of the logs were confiscated from three locations in Tohor River banks in Tebing Tinggi district in Meranti.
Zainal said the police were to continue their investigation to catch illegal loggers in the areas. (dre)
