Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Beijing | Sat, 09/25/2010 10:47 AM
The Forestry Ministry is joining forces with private companies to support the government’s forest preservation program as it strives to achieve Indonesia’s pledge to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan recently signed a memorandum of understanding with PT Putra Riau Perkasa, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Forestry, which agreed to spare its 15,640-hectare concession in Semenanjung Kampar, Riau, for a giant carbon storage facility.
“Twelve large companies have promised to set aside forest concessions as carbon storage areas.
“This should prove that large companies are concerned about preserving forests,” Zulkifli said at the signing of the MoU at the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing.
“However, I must warn that none of this will reduce the office’s critical stance toward these companies in running businesses,” he said.
The agreement was signed regardless of gray areas in the REDD+ benefit-sharing scheme, which regulates carbon trade.
Sinar Mas Forestry environment director Canecio P Munoz, who also attended the signing, said besides the Semenanjung Kampar forest area, the company had also dedicated another 700 hectares of land under the Bukit Batu biosphere reserve program.
“The forest preservation program will enable us to respond to several third parties’ doubts about our commitments to preserving nature while running our business,” he said.
Sinar Mas Forestry has come under public scrutiny after several environmental NGOs including Greenpeace suggested it had accommodated illegal practices in its business, including clearing peatlands and secondary forests dedicated for wildlife preservation to make way for oil palm plantations.
As a result, several multinational companies including Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut and Burger King, recently cancelled their business contracts with Sinar Mas.
Minister Zulkifli added that his office was in the middle of organizing a joint committee comprising the office, private entities, academicians and NGOs.
This joint committee would be tasked primarily to monitor work carried out in forests, he said.
“Whenever we face problems and difficulties regarding forest management, there will be no need to attract the attention of the international community any more. We will resolve these issues through this committee,” he said.
Besides signing the MoU, Minister Zulkifli also met with the Sino-Forest company officials in Shanghai to discuss the company’s investment plans.
“Sino-Forest plans to develop jatropha bio fuel because it has already mastered the technology to produce three times more jatropha oil than we could produce in the past,” Zulkifli said.
Sino Forest’ founder Allen Chen said Indonesia had been chosen as the company’s investment target because of its promising reforms in forestry regulation.
“We have received business intelligence reports that Indonesia is quite ideal for conducting business,” Allen said.
Sino Forest Corporation is among several giant Chinese companies operating in the forestry industry. It manages 650,000 hectares of the 750,000 hectares of forest concession provided by the Chinese administration.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment