Jakarta Globe, Firdha Novialita & Charlotte Greenfield, December 02, 2012
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Logging concessions can be seen carved out of the once lush
forest that stretches across Sumatra. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad) |
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Norway sent
a delegation to Indonesia in the past week to discuss sustainability issues
such as reducing the destruction of the Southeast Asian nation’s forests and
curbing greenhouse gases.
As
Indonesia tries to improve its living standards across the country, the cost to
the environment is immeasurable as land is cleared for gathering lumber and
setting up palm plantations. More funding is needed to combat the destruction
of the nation’s forests and to reduce air pollution, and Norway has set aside
$1 billion for Indonesia in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation (REDD).
A champion
of sustainable resources, and with a $656 billion sovereign wealth fund to back
it, the Scandinavian country is also trying to influence other nations such as Brazil
and Guyana to follow its lead to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, including
by protecting forests. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and
preserving forests helps to reduce greenhouse gases.
“The most
cost-efficient way by far of reducing carbon emissions is preserving
rainforests,” Trond Giske, Norway’s minister of trade and industry, said in
Jakarta on Tuesday. “So, by one billion [dollars] we can help the climate maybe
five times or 10 times more than spending it in other areas.”
Indonesia
represents about 3 percent of the world’s forests, according to the World
Wildlife Fund, and daily clearing in remote areas such as Kalimantan, Sumatra
and Papua is reducing acreage each year and threatening native animal species
such as the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, rhinoceros and the pygmy elephant. The
United Nations’ REDD program estimated that in the period of 2003 to 2006,
about 1.17 million hectares of forest was cleared or degraded annually. That
annual loss is equivalent to more than double the total area of Brunei.
Indonesia’s land covers 1.9 billion hectares.
As of 2005,
Indonesia ranked third among 16 developing nations in the Asia-Pacific region
by household carbon dioxide emissions, at 150 million metric tons, according to
a report this year by the United Nations Development Program. Coal-fired plants
that produce electricity also contribute to air pollution.
The amount
being set aside by Norway for reducing reforestation, though, is small compared
to what the Indonesian government says it needs. The UN-REDD program in
Indonesia itself has a budget of $5.6 million, according to its website.
Hadi
Daryanto, secretary general of the Forestry Ministry, said that the ministry
needed at least $5 billion to $10 billion each year in its fight to reduce
carbon emissions through programs such as education and raising awareness among
Indonesians living on the edge of rainforests.
“The first
approach that we use is through persuasion or education,” he said in an
interview with the Jakarta Globe on Friday, adding that illegal logging is
still occurring, but the ministry has tried its best to persuade and educate
the local people.
With REDD+,
referring to reduction practices plus a strategy in conservation and
sustainable management, data about Indonesia’s forested area have been gathered
and can be used in formulating guidelines for a program in protecting existing
forests, Hadi said.
The
government, companies, local people and activists are involved in producing the
REDD+ Safeguard Information Systems.
“This is
the most progressive, or we can say, ready-to-use, database. It’s also
describing information about people’s rights and environment problems,” Hadi
said. “Under law, there is a regulation about damage to the forest. We are
still trying to persuade and educate the people, companies or even NGOs
[nongovernment organizations],” he said.
The
ministry, Hadi added, also plans to expand protected areas to include all
peatlands and secondary forests.
Sanctions
or any legal maneuvers have been strictly enforced against companies or people
who do not protect the environment, Hadi said.
“We
continuously take legal moves and also coordinate with the police,” he said.
“And we hope the local and international trade also support this effort by not
accepting noncertified wood.”
Activists,
though, want more urgent action to preserve forests for their fauna and for
animals to live in their natural habitats. An orangutan died from burns in West
Kalimantan in late August when villagers tried to drive it out of a plantation
area because of a lack of understanding in cohabitation between animals and
humans in fringe areas.
“Illegal
logging is one of the biggest problems we have in Indonesia,” said Dannissa
Aryani, an environmental activist and member of the Greenweb Indonesia
community.
“It’s
making animals lose their shelter. In the end, they will die of hunger, some of
them dead at the hands of people themselves,” Dannissa said. “Talking about the
budget to save our nature, I think the budget will never be sufficient. With or
without other countries, we still need to work on it.”
Greenpeace
says on its website that it is campaigning for an immediate moratorium on
forest and peatland destruction in Indonesia, and for zero deforestation by
2015. USAID is also working with the Indonesian government to help reduce by
half greenhouse gas emissions and also to reduce by 50 percent the rate of
forest degradation.
At the
recent 18th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, one
of the important issues discussed was the adaptation to climate change.
Ari
Muhammad, Indonesian program coordinator for Climate Change Adaptation, an NGO,
said the Indonesian delegation hoped that it could reach a deal on steps that
could be quickly implemented like financing, technology transfer and capacity
development. He hoped the plan would be implemented in three years.
A report
released on Friday by Climate Action Tracker, which tracks global warming,
showed that Indonesia received a medium rating for its efforts in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
Norway is
trying to lead by example in reducing air pollution. The nation of about five
million people says it gets all of its electricity from water generation and is
investing in other forms of renewable energy as it pledges to reduce its carbon
emissions by 40 percent by 2020.
NASA said
in a January report that the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere exceeded
390 parts per million and would continue to rise. In 1880, when global
temperatures were first recorded, it was about 285 parts per million, and by
1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million, NASA said.
Norway is
also appealing for both rich and poor nations to become involved in the fight
as it strives to limit the increase in the global average surface temperature —
which currently stands at 15 degrees Celsius — to a maximum of 2 degrees
Celsius.
NASA
estimated that net global warming was about 0.4 degree Celsius between the
1880s and 1970s and expected temperatures to rise even further. The US agency
estimated that 2011 was the ninth warmest year in data going back to 1880, but
that nine of the 10 warmest years were in the 21st century.
“The US has
to be on board, China has to be on board, the rest of the world has to be on
board and then we can have a framework to efficiently, on a global scale, reach
the 2 degree goal,” Norwegian Trade Minister Giske said.
“We believe
that’s still possible, but we’re running out of time. Thus, it also has to be
said that the systems of spending the Norwegian money on preserving the
rainforest is put in place, because we think that prosperous agricultural
activities, prosperous legal use of good logging, prosperous industries can be
combined with stopping climate change.”
