Joko Widodo Lays Out Agricultural Manifesto for Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Deti Mega Purnamasari & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Apr 27, 2014

A Balinese farmer threshes rice in Denpasar. (EPA Photo/Made Nahi)

Jakarta. Over a month after officially entering the presidential race, Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, nominated as presidential candidate by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, has begun introducing his vision and mission to the voters.

Visiting local farmers at the Tanjungrasa village in Bogor district’s Cariu subdistrict, Joko on Sunday addressed six points in the field of agriculture and food security that would be his focus should he be elected president in the election set to take place on July 9.

Productive agricultural lands, Joko said, should not be converted into other use, such as residential or industrial areas, and should instead be preserved. Additionally, he said farmers would have to be assisted in making sure that even the smallest plots of lands were used productively and that farmers were educated not to use chemically engineered seeds or pesticides.

Joko also emphasized the need to build better infrastructure for farmers, the need to monitor the quality of water in the fields, as well as improved monetary benefits for farmers and better access to capital and financial support.

“I asked farmers, how many tons [of rice] can be produced from one hectare [of land]? Apparently it was six tons, because farmers here are using a good mix,” Joko said during his visit on Sunday.

According to him, the average amount of rice produced on Indonesian farms was between four to five tons for each hectare of land, while the population grew by three million each year.

“Like it or not, we need to prepare more food for this growth. Additionally, in the past five years there has been a significant increase in food imports,” he said, citing hikes in the imports of several staple food items such as rice, corn, soy, flour, sugar, salt, beef, onions and fruits.

“We import fish. We are a maritime nation but our fish imports have spiked,” Joko said “These are issues that need to be sorted out. These things are the reason why inflation on certain basic commodities easily occurs for a long period of time and repeatedly.”

Joko was adamant that the issue would see major risks unfurl in the next five to 10 years should the government fail to take strict and extreme policies. “Without that, we are risking our sovereignty and food security,” he said.

As such, Joko said it was important to ensure the production sector was improved so as to limit imports.

“We have to concentrate the production. Imports have to be cut and eventually eliminated. With some effort and hard work, I think we can achieve this within four or five years,” he said.

A change of mentality

Aside from his vision for the Indonesian agricultural sector, Joko on Sunday also introduced what he called a “mental revolution,” which he cited as one of the main requirements needed to see positive changes in Indonesia in the future.

“A mental revolution, because we have to change ourselves, so that this nation can reach its potential, because we are a big nation. Let’s change our mentality from the negative to the positive,” Joko said on Sunday, emphasizing that the issue would be one of his biggest focuses if elected president and would cover areas such as education, health and agriculture.

“We cannot be stuck in negative thoughts and instead should be positive, we have to be sure that we can do this well and in the right way,” Joko said.

A member of Joko’s national secretariat team, Eva Kusuma Sundari, said that with the program, Joko would become an icon of transformative leadership bringing new values to be practiced by government.

“[Joko is] a leader who seeks to promote a mental revolution for the sake of transforming Indonesia into becoming a sovereign, independent nation, the embodiment of a 21st-century Trisakti [ideology],” Eva said in Jakarta on Sunday, referring leadership principles espoused by Sukarno.

A mental revolution, she said, was part of an effort to build a fair and prosperous society that adheres to the Pancasila state ideology. “A nation that never leaves behind nation and character building projects,” Eva explained.

She emphasized that Joko had started this mission in Jakarta, with people becoming more aware of their responsibility not to litter in the areas surrounding the Angke river in West Jakarta following the city administration’s revitalization program.

“The Indonesian culture of working together has to be developed and strengthened for it to become the base of our [development],” Eva said, adding that education played a pivotal role in ensuring the strengthening of this culture among Indonesians. “Of course people and human resources are the engine of any public transformation projects and, as such, the spirit of education has to be made the center of character-building efforts.”

PDI-P central executive board chairman Maruar Sirait said Joko was ready to build up the country by focusing on three indicators: Indonesia’s political sovereignty, economic independence and a positive image in the cultural sector.

“It is important for us to move towards a mental revolution, as explained by Joko, because our nation is yet to unite mentally, but it will. We have to be confident with our capabilities,” he said.

Despite having a vast supply of natural resources, such as marine, mineral and energy resources, Indonesia remains hampered by bigger issues such as uneven economic growth, poor law enforcement as well as other leadership and mental issues, he said.

“That is why the mental revolution explained by Joko is very relevant,” Maruar said, adding that the program would inspire optimism throughout the nation’s stakeholders.

Furthermore, Maruar also explained that Indonesia’s diversity has yet to be well understood by the public and that the concept of pluralism remained in tatters as a result of years of colonialism and imperialism by the Dutch, who at the time used divisive rule to prevent the people from uniting against them.

“The mental revolution will have to nurture a mentality of unity, Indonesians have to come together in building a better Indonesia,” he said.

“[It’s called] a mental revolution because we have to change ourselves, so that this nation would have hope. Because we are a great nation.”

Search for a running mate

Maruar also said on Sunday that the mental revolution concept also proved PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri had made the right decision by appointing Joko as the party’s candidate and that she would also elect the right running mate for Joko.

“We are sure Mega will elect the right vice presidential candidate for Joko, one who will not merely be a spare tire,” Maruar said. “Let the decision be based on dialectics and public discussions. They [the public] have proved receptive towards the PDI-P’s presidential candidate, and now we hope they will react in the same way towards the PDI-P’s [appointment of a] vice presidential candidate.”

He added the party wanted to make sure any vice president would work with the president in following through party policies and was not burdened with past misdeeds.

Related Article:

Jokowi Effect Puts Spotlight on Indonesia’s Mayors

Reforesting Program Bears Fruit, Wins Hearts

A look at villages in Central Sulawesi shows how a program to stop illegal logging has been embraced by the locals

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, October 8, 2013

A member of the community-based organization in Simoro, Central Sulawesi,
 harvest honeys — a sign that local residents prefer new farming methods that
conserve the environment. (JG Photo/Dessy Sagita)

Sigi, Central Sulawesi. Until a few years ago, Kalvin P. Boso was still known as the king of slash-and-burn in his village of Lonca, tucked away in Central Sulawesi’s Sigi district.

Lonca is located just eight kilometers from the district capital, Kulawi, but the road connecting the town to the village is narrow, muddy, with a deep ravine on one side and a rocky mountain on the other, all surrounded by protected forest.

Like most villagers in Lonca, Kalvin learned to cut trees and burn them down to clear the land as a child, unaware of the risks his actions created.

When trees are present, their roots help to prevent erosion by holding the soil together and absorbing water. With the roots gone, soil can slide around a lot more and water is able to build up on the surface, causing flooding and other natural disasters such as mudslides.

The practice also threatens the local water supply by damaging the soil’s ability to retain water.

“My parents were also farmers, and from when I was a student I was taught how to clear the land without understanding the consequences to the environment,” Kalvin, now 44, tells the Jakarta Globe.

Every year, Kalvin said, he cleared at least two square kilometers of forest to grow rice, corn or cassavas.

“Our villagers have been blamed for causing the floods in Palu every year,” says Amos Sumutju, the Lonca village chief referring, to the provincial capital.

Most villagers make it a habit to clear land and move on again the next year because they believed the soil is no longer fertile after a single season. This has placed their own lives in danger of disaster because of the growing expanse of critically degraded land.

Plan of action

The Forestry Ministry says more than 27 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests are now in critical condition due to illegal deforestation.

But land clearing by fire was stopped in Lonca village when the government introduced a program called Strengthening Community-Based Forest and Watershed Management to raise public awareness about illegal logging.

The program was established with the help of the United Nations Development Program, which, along with the Global Environment Facility, donated $7.5 million for the period 2009-2014 to revitalize watershed management in six locations in Indonesia by involving and empowering local inhabitants.

The six locations chosen for the project are in the provinces of North Sumatra, Lampung, Central Java, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and Central Sulawesi.

“We first started out by approaching the locals,” says Erus Rusyadirus, the regional facilitator for the program in Central Sulawesi.

“I stayed for at least three days in every village, talked and spent time with the villagers, trying to convince them that slashing and burning trees was bad for their present and future.”

Hearts and minds

“It was very hard at first. A farmer once told me ‘I don’t care if you or the government tell me to stop cutting trees, I will not stop. Who can guarantee my livelihood or if my family can still eat the next day?’” Erus said.

After intensive guidance, many of the farmers, including Kalvin, began to understand that their village was in danger.

“Kalvin, who used to be known as the king of slashing and burning, is now the head of the community-based organization,” Amos said, referring to a group set up under the program.

The CBO receives a small grant for the program, which it can use to fund its activities. Every CBO has different programs, but focuses mainly on empowering the locals to find a new source of livelihood so that the farmers do not have to go back to slashing and burning trees.

Kalvin, for one, says the program has changed his life for the better.

“After listening to Pak Erus’s explanation about how clearing the land with the old method has put many people’s lives in danger, I started to realize how much I loved the environment, and as the leader of the group I feel a deep sense of responsibility to conserve the forest,” he says.

Along with the other CBO members, Kalvin works to raise awareness in his village and urges locals to farm on a permanent plot of land rather than clear new land each year. Most people in Lonca now grow cocoa and vegetables.

The group, with 16 other CBOs in Sigi, has also planted 240,000 tree seedlings.

“If you came to our village a few years ago, you’d see the whole area was brown. But now as you can see, it’s all turning green,” Amos says proudly.

Community empowerment

Residents in Simoro, in Sigi’s Gumbasa subdistrict, have proudly embraced their new livelihood and work enthusiastically to develop various activities improve the economic status of their village.

“Everything started to change in 2004 when our village was flooded and we saw giant logs floating everywhere,” says Herry, the head of the Gumbasa CBO.

Gumbasa was severely affected by flash flooding that year, which swept away several homes.

“At that time, slash-and-burn clearing was still very common. People would clear the land and started farming anywhere they wanted to,” Herry says.

“We even cleared land inside the Lore Lindu National Park.”

Lore Lindu, east of Lonca, is a protected forest area that was designated as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves. It spans 2,180 square kilometers and is home to numerous rare species, including 77 birds endemic to Sulawesi.

CBO groups around it were taught to make the best of their environment by cultivating honeybees, cows and chicken. They also grow vegetables and fruit, as well as producing snacks from the produce to sell in Kulawi.

To be able to join their local CBO, each person has to plant at least 15 trees in a watershed area.

The village has planted nearly 70,000 seedlings along the riverbanks since 2011, and an evaluation shows that more than 60 percent are growing well.

Simoro village has also issued a regulation that farmers can still farm in Lore Lindu as long as they are committed to preserving the environment.

“If they want to use the land inside the national park, they have to plant at least 50 trees and they have to promise they will not cut a single tree inside the protected forest,” Herry says.

The CBO there has done so well that it was named the best CBO in Indonesia during an award ceremony in Bali recently.

Localization

Saeful Rachman, the national program manager of the SCBWFM, says the project was created after a report was published about critically degraded watershed areas in Indonesia.

“Some changes happened because of natural disasters like floods, climate change and landslides, but most were due to illegal logging,” he says.

Saeful says the Forestry Ministry has started replanting trees, but its program is not very successful due to rapid population growth and declining vegetation area.

“Most of the time the watershed areas are degraded because of land conversion,” he explains.

Therefore, he says, the UNDP and the Forestry Ministry proposed the program to increase awareness and empower communities so they can find another source of livelihood that is sustainable.

“Most farmers were very skeptical at first when we introduced the program, but when we asked them to be the main actors and the agents of change instead of the subjects, we saw significant progress,” Saeful says.

“Not only did they stop cutting down trees, but the villagers actively started working on regulations to punish illegal loggers. We are so proud of them.

“The locations were chosen because of their biophysical conditions and the local government’s readiness to implement the program,” he adds.

Persuading the locals to stop slashing and burning was a tall order.

In Omu village, also in Gumbasa, the program had to deal with an indigenous tribe that had been living inside a protected forest for generations.

Aris Pasasa, the leader of the local CBO, says that when the project first started there were 13 families from the indigenous tribe living inside the forest.

“They had been living inside the protected forest since the 1960s, and every year they moved to a new location and cleared land,” Aris says.

“Approaching them was a difficult thing to do, not only because they did not speak Indonesian, but also because they would hide every time they saw someone who was not from their tribe.”

With much effort and the help of a translator, the CBO finally managed to persuade the families to move out of the forest. Aris even lent his land to the families to build huts and got other residents to hire them to work on their land.

“Now we worry less about flash floods or polluted and damaged water sources,” Aris says.

Additional goals

Saeful says the main objective of the program is not only to improve the condition of the watershed area, but also to push for the government to give its support and encourage local officials to come up with regulations that help the environment.

Aside from community empowerment to stop people from cutting down trees, the program also asks the communities to restore the critically degraded areas to pristine condition.

“Every year we plant 450,000 to 600,000 seedlings provided by the government, but the really special thing is that sometimes the villagers themselves are even willing to spend their own money to buy the seedlings and plant them, and that’s a very good sign,” he says.

From the Past to the Future

The Jakarta Post, WEEKENDER | Fri, 01/22/2010 4:02 PM |Profile

A professor of geology and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Jared Diamond is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs and Steel, a scientific analysis of the history of civilization. His other, perhaps more important message is to never forget the lessons of history. Hana Miller interviews him.

“I have often asked myself,” Jared Diamond writes in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, “What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?”

At a time when the future of the planet and the life it supports has come to the forefront of popular media, Diamond’s message about learning from the mistakes and the choices of past civilizations in his recent Collapse becomes especially pertinent. Referring to the analytical model he uses to examine various different societies and how they adapted to – or ignored – the actualities of their circumstances, Diamond shares with us his thoughts on the factors that put Indonesia’s future most at risk, raising critical points about the direction in which we are knowingly leading ourselves.

Globalization

In my book Collapse, I discuss the successes and failures of past societies at solving their environmental problems – such as the successes of the Japanese, New Guinea highlanders and Tikopia islanders, and the failures of the Polynesians on Easter Island in the Southeast Pacific, the Mayans of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, and the Anasazi Indians of the Southwest United States.

In the past, when societies on different continents around the world were largely isolated from each other, the success or failure of one society didn’t affect distant societies. For example, it had no effect whatsoever on Indonesia when the Easter Island society collapsed, or when the Mayan cities collapsed. It also had no effect on Indonesia when Japan in the 1700s solved its forestry problems sustainably.

Today, however, in our globalized world, anything that any country does has the potential to affect any other country. For example, with global warming, greenhouse gases emitted in the United States or China or Russia contribute to global warming that affects Indonesian reefs. Globalization also means that Japan, a populous rich country that’s very good at protecting its own forests, succeeds in doing so by destroying the forests of other countries, such as Indonesia.

International business and the environment

Among the most important relationships for Indonesia are those involving Southeast Asian and worldwide businesses that import raw materials from Indonesia, especially tree products (timber and paper materials), fish and other sea products, oil and minerals.

My impression is that some of these international businesses operate in Indonesia according to standards that are not up to the highest international ones. For instance, much is known about how to manage forests sustainably to extract wood and wood products at a rate no higher than the rate at which new trees grow. Thus the forest can be exploited for the indefinite future. Japan and Germany are examples of densely inhabited countries that have been managing their forests sustainably for around 400 years. Even after centuries of exploitation, visitors to Japan and Germany are stunned to see how large a fraction of the area of those countries is still covered by forests: about 76 percent in the case of Japan!

As a result, there is no ongoing deforestation in Japan and Germany: new forests are planted or grown at a rate at least equal to the rate at which mature forests are cut down, and the extent of forests in Japan is actually increasing. In Indonesia, however, these international standards for sustainable forestry are in many or most cases not followed by international wood and pulp and paper companies. That’s a tragedy and a big economic loss for Indonesia: as things are going now, Indonesia will not continue to enjoy forest income for the indefinite future.

An added tragedy for Indonesia is that much or most forest products are exported in the raw form of unfinished logs. But most of the value of forest products is added after the trees are cut, when the logs are worked into finished timber and paper. This added value is much greater than the value of the unfinished logs. In effect, most of the profits from Indonesia’s timber are not received by Indonesia, but by the countries to which it exports its timber.

Similar problems arise with fisheries. There are well-established international standards for managing fisheries sustainably, so that fish are caught at rates no higher than the rates at which they can spawn and grow to maturity. Sustainably managed fisheries provide an income for the indefinite future. Examples of these include the Australian rock lobster fishery and the American wild salmon fishery. But most fisheries in Indonesia are not managed sustainably. That, again, is a tragedy for Indonesia, which loses a source of income that could continue for the indefinite future – if only it were managed properly.

It is entirely within the power of the Indonesian government to obtain a good economic deal with regard to foreign exploitation of its raw products. Other countries already insist on getting a good deal for their raw products. All that the Indonesian government would have to do is license only foreign companies that meet accepted international standards for managing fisheries and forests, and insist that most of the added value of Indonesian forest products be added in Indonesia rather than in Japan or China or Taiwan or Malaysia. Sadly for Indonesia, this is not happening at present.

The Five-Point Framework

In assessing whether a country is succeeding or failing at solving its major problems, I go through a checklist of five sets of factors: human impacts on environmental resources; climate change; effects of friendly trade partners; effects of hostile neighbors, and a country’s social, political and economic conditions that either help or hurt the country in recognizing and solving its problems.

Of these five factors, it seems four are critical for Indonesia. The one that is not critical – at least at present – is hostile neighbors. Although Indonesia has had problems with other countries in the past, that’s not the case today.

But the other factors all apply to Indonesia. With regard to the first factor, I mentioned above the overexploitation and decline of Indonesia’s rich forests and fisheries. Climate change affects Indonesia, especially through the harmful effects of global warming on the country’s rich reefs and through the increased frequency of extreme climate events such as cyclones, droughts and floods.

Friendly trade partners are another problem: Indonesia has friendly relations with Japan, China, Taiwan and Malaysia, but those countries are now partly the cause of the problems in Indonesia’s fisheries and forests.

Finally, as regards the fifth factor, political considerations in Indonesia are important for understanding why the economy and the people enjoy only a small fraction of the benefits they would otherwise receive from the country’s fisheries and forests.

Societal Response

My experience is of conflicts of interest, of two types. One set of conflicts involves those I mentioned above, between international interests – which make money by exploiting Indonesian resources unsustainably and add most of the value outside the country – and Indonesia’s own interest.

The other set of conflicts is between short-term and long-term interests within Indonesia itself: many Indonesians, just like many other people around the world, pursue short-term interests to the detriment of long-term ones. An extreme example is the use of dynamite fishing in coral reefs. This yields more fish for sale in the short run, but destroys the reef and hence reduces potential fishery income in the long run.

Factors for hope

At least four sets of factors make me hopeful. One was the serious discussion of climate change that took place in Copenhagen and is expected to continue elsewhere. The second is the role of big businesses, not all of which are destructive: some international corporations have been major forces for hope for the world’s future, by managing resources sustainably.

A third factor for hope is the recent change in attitudes about environmental issues in my country, the United States, which under the Bush administration pursued shamefully ignorant and destructive environmental policies. It’s also a promising sign that the Chinese government is taking some, but not all, environmental problems seriously.

Finally, a factor for hope is exemplified by The Jakarta Post – by which I mean not just the Post itself, but world media in general. Thanks to the Post and other media, including newspapers, TV, radio and the Internet, people in one part of the world can quickly learn about what is happening in other parts.

I shall never forget being at a small, remote airport in the Indonesian province of Maluku, where passengers could watch TV while waiting for their plane. And playing on the screen while I was there was a Michael Jackson video! While the late Michael Jackson is enjoyable, there are other things one can see on TV may be more important for understanding what is going on in the rest of the world.

As a result of the Post and other media, Indonesians now have the means to understand what’s going on in other countries. Some of those things are good and admirable, and some are terrible and destructive. Through the Post and other media, you have the opportunity to watch and learn from and imitate the policies of other countries that you believe promote long-term economic success, and you also have the opportunity to see destructive things that other countries are doing and you can avoid repeating those same mistakes in Indonesia.

Religious, traditional wisdom urged for green protection

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Religious and ethnic leaders expressed concern Thursday over global warming, asserting no spiritual teachings or traditional beliefs allowed the unchecked exploitation of nature.

Environmental damage caused by human activities is against all spiritual and traditional values, which teach people to preserve and live in harmony with nature, Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin said during a discussion here.

The event was organized by Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's most influential Muslim organizations, to seek a common ground among different groups prior to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali from Dec. 3 to 14.

World representatives will convene at the UN conference to negotiate a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Religious and ethnic leaders will also be involved in the negotiations aimed at pushing developed countries to reduce carbon emissions produced by industrial activities and to shoulder the responsibility for any failure to meet reduction targets.

Present during Thursday's meeting were representatives of Indonesia's five biggest religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Ethnic tribal leaders from Banten, Sumatra, Papua, Madura and Borneo also were in attendance.

Buddhist priest Tadisa Paramita said human greed was behind the environmental degradation that has translated into natural disasters such as floods and drought.

He said humans had benefited from industrial activities at the expense of the environment, ignoring nature's protests sent through a number of disasters.

"Nature responds according to what humans do. We believe that nothing comes as a coincidence ... people reap what they sow."

Father Ismartono of the Indonesian Bishops Conference said: "Humans are not the owners of this earth and have no right to exploit nature the way they do. God is the creator of this earth and humans are the steward."

Indonesia has seen some of the worst environmental damage in the world, with some 50 million hectares of forest throughout the country heavily exploited.

The country has been cited for its rapid rate of deforestation, and has been called one of the main contributors to global warming.

Al Azhar, representing the Riau Malay tribe from Sumatra, told the audience how forests in his region were exploited by timber companies despite protests from indigenous people.

"Indigenous people will plant one tree if they cut down one tree ... but the companies come and take everything from the forest without any effort to replace it."

Leonard Imbiri from Papua said the forests in Papua had been devastated.

"People know of Papua as having amazing and wild forests ... but you can come and see now, the forests and nature there have been badly damaged. Gone are the indigenous people's efforts to preserve them," he said. (lln)

People should not be greedy in exploiting natural resources: president

Gianyar, Bali (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the people not to be egoistic and greedy in exploiting natural resources so that future generations could also benefit from them.

"We should not be egoistic or greedy nor abdicate our responsibility to protect the interest of future generations," the president said when inaugurating the Bali Safari and Marine Park here on Tuesday.

The head of state said coming generations also had the right to benefit from existing natural resources.

"Therefore, I agree to and support the initiative of all quarters to preserve natural resources," he said.

On the occasion, the president also raised the question of domestic-versus-global economies which was often taken up by various quarters.

"One should not set the local and global economies against each other," said the president who was accompanied by Minister of Tourism and Culture Jero Wacik.

He said it was impossible for the Indonesian economy to avoid the effects of the global economy. "We are living in a globalized era so that our local economy is facing challenges from the global economy," he said.

Therefore, the president called on central and local government leaders to keep boosting the resilience of the local economy.

"I want all leaders to be creative, innovative and responsible for the solution of local problems," he added.

The Bali Safari park was built on a 40-hectare plot of land and being managed by the Indonesian Safari Park of Bogor in West Java.

The president was accompanied by Mrs Ani Yudhoyono, Forestry Minister MS Ka`ban, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono and Transportation Minister Jusman Syafei Djamal.

During his visit to Bali, the president on Tuesday also spoke at a function marking the introduction of bio-fuels dubbed bio-pertamax and bio-solar.

He appealed to technologists to discover and develop cheaper technology to produce alternative fuels such as wind and solar energy to reduce the country`s dependence on fossil fuel.

"We must find cheaper technology to develop alternative energy such as wind and solar energy," he said.

Minister calls for tree-planting campaign

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If everyone planted a tree today, some 230 million newly planted trees would be proof of Indonesia's commitment to environmental conservation, State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said Sunday.

"Greening the country should start with individuals. Everyone can plant trees at their houses or on farmland," he said.

"There is nothing to lose but a lot to gain from this tree-planting movement.

"Planting trees in residential areas is good for local residents, helps green the country and will form part of global efforts to fight climate change."

Rachmat was speaking at an environmental event held at the Bung Karno Sports Complex in Central Jakarta on Sunday. Also present at the event were Jakarta Vice Governor Prijanto and the United Nations Special Ambassador for Millennium Development Goals in the Asia Pacific Erna Witoelar, who is also Rachmat's wife.

The event was sponsored by car maker PT Honda Prospect Motor, printing and publishing giant the Kompas Gramedia Group and paper and pulp company PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper.

Some 1000 rare trees from across the country were planted as part of the event. Trees planted included the kepel (Stelechocarpus burahol), sadeng or footstool palm (Livistona rotundifolia), sawo kecik (Manilkara Kauki), kersen or Jamaican cherry (Muntingia calabura) and trembesi or rain tree (Pithecolobium saman).

Rachmat said local governments should adhere to a 2007 law on national spatial zoning to ensure cities have enough green and open spaces to support national conservation efforts.

"Local administrations should ensure green areas are free from construction activities ... that disturb the environment," he said.

"Administrations should also set aside a certain percentage of their land to be made into open spaces where people can enjoy recreational activities and plant trees."

Local and international experts currently agree that 30 percent of any urban setting should be made up of green and open spaces.

Prijanto said his newly installed administration was still debating strategies to create more open areas in the city.

However, he said the Jakarta administration was considering procuring land for the purpose and would take firm action against anyone violating local environmental bylaws.

"All houses and buildings constructed in green areas are illegal and they will be bulldozed," he said.

"Those who build larger structures in violation of the law will be taken to court," he said.

ADB Active in Disaster Risk Management and Recovery in Region

NEW DELHI, INDIA - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) continues to be active in disaster risk management in Asia, and has learned important lessons from its experiences, ADB Vice President Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said today.

Ms. Schaefer-Preuss is attending the Second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, organized by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs. At the conference, held in New Delhi, Ms. Schaefer-Preuss emphasized that disaster relief is an important pillar of poverty reduction.

“Disaster relief strategy needs to be mainstreamed into policy decisions on infrastructure, agriculture, housing and natural resource management, among others,” Ms. Schaefer-Preuss said. “This also means that a clear and responsible government coordination mechanism needs to be established and maintained at all times.”

Ms. Schaefer-Preuss said there needs to be a clear link between international agreements, national strategies, local actions and support from various partners. She also emphasized the importance of cooperation among the countries mostly likely to be affected by disasters.

“Too often, we have witnessed the lack of clear coordination among the various institutions – which tends to delay the needed assistance,” she said. “I believe regional cooperation is a critical need for Asia where those nations affected can share their knowledge and experience.”

Many scientists are predicting a higher probability of natural disasters in the near future due to climate change. ADB recognizes the need to forge strong partnerships to prepare for possible future needs. Partnership among donor agencies, governments, research institutes and local communities will be critical in reducing the impact of future disasters.

ADB’s Disaster and Emergency Assistance Policy sets out objectives which are designed to strengthen support for reducing disaster risk in ADB’s member countries in Asia and the Pacific, as well as provide rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance following a disaster. A new action plan is being prepared to further embed disaster risk management into ADB’s operational practices, and to develop additional risk reduction measures to further enhance reconstruction projects and climate adaptation projects.

About ADB

Cheap cooking oil for those in need

MATARAM, W. Nusa Tenggara (Jakarta Post): In response to soaring prices of cooking oil, the Mataram Trade and Industry Agency has distributed 6,125 liters of cooking oil to people in need across the regency.

The Agency's supervisory unit head Gusti Ayu Yuliani, said the local administration had provided the fund to subsidize the cooking oil.

For each liter of oil, the administration has paid a subsidy of Rp 2,500.

"The subsidy enables us to sell the oil at the cheaper price of Rp 6,500 per liter into about three thousand households in the region," she said.

The distribution would run until Nov. 12. Only those registered as "poor people" could buy up to two liters of cooking oil.

More than 500 women in Tanjung Karang took advantage of the deal. Regular prices for the oil sit at some Rp 10,000 per liter. --JP

Market launched to improve farmers' lives

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): Don't know where to go on weekends other than the shopping malls?

You can perhaps pay a visit to Indonesia's first-of-its-kind farmer market, officially launched here Saturday by the Agriculture Ministry and due to run every weekend afterwards.

Located at the clean, neat National Monument (Monas)'s IRTI parking area on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta, the market offers various kinds of farming products: fruits and vegetables, processed products, and ornamental plants.

And they are all fresh bought and sold by the traders themselves.

These farmers come from areas in Jakarta and the neighboring Banten and West Java provinces.

"We wish to bring the farmers to meet face-to-face with customers, so that they can earn more from their farming products," said Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyono at the launch.

He said that farmers had all these times been a marginalized group, as they could only earn a little from their farming products that were usually traded to customers via middlemen, who took the most benefit from the mediated trading system.

"Based on a research, farmers can earn an added value up to 23 percent of overall agribusiness activities with the direct marketing system," added Anton, taking as example the success of farmer markets in Malaysia, Britain and some other countries.

At the same occasion, the Agriculture Ministry's director general for processing and marketing of agricultural products, Djoko Said Damardjati, said that Jakarta was the first province in Indonesia organizing such a market.

"We'll have this farmer market in two or three provinces in total by the end of the year," said Djoko, adding that the other provinces might include Yogyakarta, Bandung in West Java, or Semarang in Central Java.

According to Djoko, the ministry has set aside a fund of around Rp 400 million (approximately US$43,716) for the program this year.

Overall, a total of 34 cities and municipalities in 17 provinces of Indonesia will host the farmer markets in the next few years.

The ministry will provide all farmer participants with kiosks for free.

Indonesia needs to apply biosphere reserve concept: LIPI

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA (Antara): Indonesia needs to apply the biosphere reserve concept, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.

The biosphere reserve concept could balance the economic and environmental conservation interests toward sustainable development, LIPI Deputy Head Dr. Endang Sukara said in a press statement here on Saturday.

The concept was clearly dedicated to the development of social and economic activities by involving the community as the guards and protectors of the environment, he said.

The biosphere reserve concept could be used as a model in Indonesia to deal with the rapid rate of ecosystem landscape degradation in this country, according to Pr. Sukara, who is concurrently the chairman of the National Man and Biosphere (MAB) program of UNESCO Indonesia.

Indonesia is losing no less than two million hectares of forest area annually due to development activities. The deforestation inflicted to a significant loss of flora and fauna biodiversity, ecosystem and landscape on Earth, especially in Indonesia, he said.

Due to the deforestation, Indonesia also lost opportunities to make scientific discoveries on the potentials of the biological diversity for food, medicines and other industrial and development materials, he said.

Moreover, the people's welfare was also threatened by the environmental degradation.

To date, Indonesia has six biosphere reserves, they are: Gunung Leuser NP (National Park), Siberut Island (including Siberut NP), Cibodas (including Gunung Gede-Pangrango NP), Tanjung Putting NP, Lore Lindu NP and Komodo NP; the latter is also recognized as a natural World Heritage site.

The concept of biosphere reserves was derived from the first intergovernmental conference organized by UNESCO in 1968. Two years later, UNESCO officially launched a Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program, which is one of its cornerstone programs.

Eco-friendly radio helps Javanese farmers

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bantul

The two-by-three-meter room is cramped with electronic gadgets, computers, chairs and tables -- but it is the nerve center of farming life, as well as every other activity in Terong village, Dlinggo district, Bantul, from which the Menara Siar Pedesaan (MSP), or Rural Broadcasting Tower community radio station airs its programs.

Terong village consists of nine hamlets and is inhabited by around 6,000 people, 4,000 of whom are farmers.

MSP broadcasts a variety of community-based information programs as well as an environmentally-friendly farming program, which disseminates information on efficient farming patterns, pest control and food crop price management.

The farming program is aired twice weekly -- every Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and every Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., while other programs are aired every Friday evening.

"Our schedule is flexible. We'll cancel the Wednesday program out of the planting season," said Sukamdan, leader of the Among Kismo farming association, an alliance of farmers from the nine hamlets in the village.

"We apply a back-to-nature concept in farm management and planting pattern programs," said Terong village administrative chief and MSP radio announcer, Sudirman Alfian.

Sudirman said the radio station chose to focus on a back-to-nature concept due to extensive soil damage in the village, which had resulted from an ineffective government policy of promoting the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Despite the lack of concrete data, the four years of MSP's existence has brought about some changes in farmers' cultivating patterns. This is evident from a decrease in the use of chemical fertilizers, with most of the farmers switching back to organic fertilizers.

"We have not yet obtained the exact figures or percentages, but the change in farming habits is obvious," Sudirman said.

Sudirman said residents now used natural pest control measures, such as using organic pesticides derived from the mindi plant, with favorable results.

"The eel population dropped drastically when chemical fertilizers and pesticide were used ... they died of chemical poisoning.

"Now, eel numbers in the fields have increased. This indicates that the environmental condition has improved."

Radio MSP was established in 2002 when one of the farming groups received aid from the World Bank through the Decentralized Agriculture and Forestry Extension Program (Dafep) in an effort to empower farmers.

They received audio equipment, such as amplifiers and loudspeakers, to expedite information among villagers. As they faced difficulties in operating the devices, they set up a community radio as a means to communicate and provide information and entertainment.

Group members collected fees which amounted to Rp 7 million (approximately US$777) and purchased additional equipment. The World Bank then provided them with a mixer.

MSP radio, which is set at a frequency of 107.9 FM, went on air in November 2002 and has been registered as a member of the Yogyakarta Community Radio Network (JRKY). It has a current broadcast radius range of 6 kilometers.

"We stopped airing for two months because the radio station and some of the equipment was damaged from the massive earthquake that struck in May last year."

Thanks to a number of donors, that provided transmitting devices, a mixer and a facsimile machine, MSP was able to get back on the air.

At least 15 people call in to participate in live programs every day; some from as far away as Gunungkidul.

"At least we are able to get information quicker," said Sukamdan, leader of the Among Tani farmers' group.

MSP is also the center for information on activities in the village. A survey involving 500 local respondents showed that 75 percent of listeners regularly tuned in to the station.

The radio station employs seven broadcasters, some of whom are employees at the village hall. Residents collect fees to finance operational costs, while the village administration foot the telephone and electricity bills, which amount to Rp 1 million monthly.

Sukamdan said Radio MSP gives direct benefits to farmers because they can obtain information fast, and are kept up-to-date on crop price developments, thereby no longer needing to rely on middlemen during the harvest.

Farmers are able to listen to the experiences of other farmers in cultivating a certain plant successfully.

"We often discuss the best way to plant. We record the discussions and the radio airs and discusses them during the interactive programs," he said.

KPC wins 2007 sustainability award

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In recognition of its transparency in reporting and commitment to social-environmental sustainability, Indonesia's biggest coal mining firm, PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), was presented with the 2007 sustainability award at the third annual Indonesian Sustainability Report Awards (ISRA) on Thursday.

Previous winner and automotive kingpin PT Astra International Tbk took second place this year, while new entrant PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper took both the Best Social & Environmental Reporting and the Best Website awards.

The awards, which were this year held in conjunction with the second Sustainable Enterprise Performance Conference (SEPC 2007), which closes today, consist of five categories: Best Sustainability Reporting, Best Environmental and Social Reporting, Best Environmental Reporting, Best Social Reporting, and Best Website.

State-owned coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam took second place in the Social and Environmental Reporting category, while another state mining firm, PT Aneka Tambang, took the award for Best Environmental Reporting, with PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol Tbk coming second in this category.

Indonesia's largest telecoms firm, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and its main competitor, Indosat, came first and second, respectively, in the Social Reporting category.

Special commendations for first-time participants were awarded to PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper, PT International Nickel Indonesia and PT Timah.

Seventeen state-owned enterprises and private companies participated this year at the event, yet only 11 were selected for consideration by a 14-strong panel of judges representing multiple stakeholders.

These include the State Ministry for the Environment, the Capital Market Supervisory Agency, the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX), the Indonesian Center for Sustainable Development, the Indonesian Business Link, and the Corporate Forum for Community Development.

The winners were selected after a careful evaluation of their 2006 annual reports, including reports on socio-environmental sustainability, interviews, and corporate social responsibility-compliant company websites.

The ISRAs were first organized in 2005 by the Indonesian Institute of Accountants (IAI-KAM), with the aim of affording recognition to institutions that routinely report and publish their environmental, social or integrated sustainability practices.

The awards are also intended to encourage reporting, increase corporate accountability and emphasize corporate responsibilities to key stakeholders, and to heighten awareness of corporate transparency and disclosure issues.

The IAI-KAM, an independent professional organization of management accountants established in 1987, has been actively involved in promoting sustainability management and CSR reporting among Indonesia companies and universities since 2004.

Unilever rebuilds quake-damaged health, education facilities

The Jakarta Post

YOGYAKARTA: PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk. has rebuilt health and education facilities badly damaged by the 2006 earthquake in Bantul, Gunungkidul and Sleman regencies.

The company's director of corporate relations and human resources Joseph Bataona officially handed over the facilities to the respective regions on Wednesday in a modest ceremony held at Bambanglipuro Community Health Center, Bantul.

The rebuilt facilities comprise of five community health centers, or puskesmas -- four in Bantul and one in Gunungkidul -- a community center in Sleman and a kindergarten in Bantul.

"Children are the future of the nation. In rebuilding the facilities, we want to make sure that they are educated and healthy for the sake of their future," Bataona said in his remarks during the ceremony.

According to Maya Tamimi, SME program manager at Unilever Peduli Foundation, the company spent Rp 2.7 billion (about US$300,000) in reconstructing the facilities.

Together with medical and other equipment provided along with the health facilities, total funds spent amounted to about Rp 4 billion.

"We are glad that the private sector has provided us with such aid that we are sure we will be able to completely reconstruct all (damaged) public facilities within two years since the earthquake," Bantul regent Idham Samawi said at the ceremony. -- JP/Sri Wahyuni

Environmental rating system 'needs weight, credibility'

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

More weight and sterner consequences tied to the government's annual environmental rating system for industries should guarantee greener corporate ambitions and action against non-compliance, stakeholders said Tuesday.

The Office of the State Minister for the Environment resumed in 2002 use of the PROPER rating system, which assesses industries in terms of their waste management and corporate environmental responsibility. The system later grades businesses into one of five different color groups indicating their compliance to the required standards.

The office has already covered 521 companies operating in various industries and expects to assess a further 1,000 next year.

Green activist Mas Achmad Santosa from the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law said that for PROPER to succeed, four approaches must be adopted: command and control, behavioral, incentive and public pressure.

"These four need integrating. The PROPER that I see now still relies on incentives and public pressure, but it has yet to spark awareness within the industries that would eventually lead to green behavior," he told a discussion on revitalizing the PROPER system.

Santosa added: "The failure to carry out legal enforcement against unruly companies turns around the credibility PROPER is seeking to establish.

"There should be a (premise) that not taking PROPER seriously ends in facing harsh sanctions. But from what I've seen, very few of the black cases go to court," he said, referring to the categorization of "black" used to indicate total disobedience to environmental standards.

Only companies stamped "black" for two consecutive years are brought to court. The other color codes, from least to most severe, are gold, green, blue and red.

Environmental activists, Santosa said, are of the view that industries in the country abide by environmental laws to evade liability, not to help raise awareness of sustainable development and the fragility of ecosystems.

Bien Subiantoro of state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia said the bank uses PROPER as a factor in considering loan applications made by firms.

"The way PROPER is prepared and its position in front of the industries should be well-put and independent (from the reviewed company)," he said.

Syamsul Ma'arif, an environmental consultant for Bandung-based textile exporter PT Daliatex Kesuma, said the environment office should collaborate more closely with local administrations to monitor industries throughout the country.

He said the provision of quality staffers to assist industries in reaching "gold" status was of great importance.

"Being 'red' or 'green' can lead to two things; either it will boost the firms to upgrade their environmental bars or bring them down as it puts more of a burden on them and effects their competitiveness," he said.

Rasio Ridho Sani of the PROPER team said the rating system was implemented to motivate industries to establish and maintain environment-minded standards of operation, in line with calls by the public and shareholders for greener business practices.

Netherlands to buy carbon credits from Pontianak landfill gas flaring

On 14 June Ambassador Dr N. van Dam, together with the mayor of Pontianak, Dr H. Buchary Abdurrachman, witnessed the signing of the Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement for the Pontianak Landfill Gas Flaring Project, executed by project developer PT Gikoko Kogyo and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in its capacity as a trustee of the Netherlands CDM Facility.

The Netherlands are buying an amount of 350.000 Certified Emissions Reductions from the Pontianak Landfill Gas Flaring Project. These reductions will help the Netherlands to meet part of its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction obligation under the Kyoto Protocol and reduce the global emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Pontianak Landfill Gas Flaring Project is the first project under the bilateral Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) cooperation between the Netherlands and Indonesia. The Netherlands and Indonesia entered into a bilateral CDM cooperation 2 years ago, with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation under the CDM between the Ministry of the Environment of Indonesia Kementerian Lingkunan Hidup and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) on 22 February 2005.

The implementation of this project for Landfill Gas Flaring on the landfill of the Municipality of Pontianak, TPA Batu Layang, will abate approximately 1.5 mln tonnes of CO2 equivalent during the proposed project life. This contributes to the greenhouse gas abatement goal of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change.

In addition to this global benefit, the project will contribute locally to sustainable landfilling and municipal solid waste management. Furthermore, this private sector investment in solid waste management demonstrates the commercial opportunities for sustainable municipal solid waste management as well as environmental and social improvements.

Germany to write off RI`s debts if nat`l parks in Sumatra are preserved

Kota Agung, Lampung (ANTARA News) - The government of Germany has agreed to write off half of Indonesia`s foreign debts if the country could properly preserve the national parks in Sumatra.

Chief of the South Bukit Barisan National Park (TNBBS) Task Force Ir Lusman Pasaribu said here on Friday the agreement made in the form of an MoU would be effective 2007 to 2011.

However, the government of Indonesia provided 6.25 million euros for the preservation of the South Bukit Barisan, Mount Leurse and Kerince Slebat national parks.

"If our government is able to implement the agreement, Germany has agreed to write off twice the value of fund allocated to the national parks," Lukman said.

It was reported that some other countries who acted as creditors for Indonesia as well as international non governmental institutions (NGO) had expressed readiness to provide such support under this facility and fund for the preservation of the three national parks in Sumatra.

Therefore, according to Lukman, the government of Indonesia along with the management of the three national parks should work hard to show to the international community that this country is really able to manage and preserve their flora.

"We should show them our ability to implement the agreement and manage the preservation of the South Bukit Barisan national park," he said.

Covering 356,800 hectares of land, the South Bukit Barisan National Park has a number of protected exotic and rare flora and fauna. Together with two other national parks, South Bukit Barisan national park was nominated as a cluster natural world heritage site as the last shield for the conservation of tropical forests in the world.

Another Jakarta kampong goes green

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Plants and gardening were not Ida's cup of tea, especially because she doesn't have enough space around her small house in Bonang kampong, Pegangsaan, Central Jakarta, to build a garden.

But after a visit to the green Banjarsari kampong in South Jakarta, the housewife changed her mind.

"I was so impressed with the virtually green kampong. Besides, gardening is not as hard as I thought before and it doesn't have to take too much space," she said Saturday.

Since last year, Ida and 20 others in the neighborhood had started to plant vegetables and plants often used as traditional herbal medicines.

On Saturday they were attending a course about gardening and "green pharmacy" from Ibu Bambang, a leader of greening program in Banjarsari, who was invited to share her experiences.

The session was one of the many activities that was organized by GE Money during its Global Community Days, an annual program as part of their integrated corporate social responsibility worldwide.

Also in conjunction with the 480th Jakarta anniversary, that fell on June 22, GE Money's engagement and corporate citizenship manager Ani T. Rahardjo said that the program could help communities, especially slum residents, to empower themselves.

"We focus our activities in this kampong, and today we have this training and briefing session for women about gardening. We will also have a competition for their gardens, and a drawing competition for elementary schools-aged children," she said.

GE and non-profit organization Nurani Dunia Foundation had worked together for six years in Bonang, educating the residents about environment and health-related issues.

They built learning center Rumah Belajar Proklamasi in 2004, a place more than a library or a stop house for children after school time.

"It is also the center for our activities, from religious gathering, meetings for planning upcoming events and regular sports activities, and many more," said Megi Budi Sumarno, a resident of 10 years and now entrusted to manage the center.

In short, according to Megi, the learning center has helped residents to focus on many positives activities, such as sports -- the company and foundation have built badminton court and provide table tennis equipment -- and gardening.

"In the old days, this kampong was a drugs center. Many residents involved with drugs, both as users or dealers. But now, the number is decreasing. Ibu-ibu, who used to sell drugs, have also stopped their business as they have more interesting activities, such as gardening," said Megi.

Imam Prasodjo of the Nurani Dunia Foundation said that the success of Bonang residents to improve the condition of their kampong could be an example for other slums in fight against its various social and economic problems.

"Participation is the key in any empowerment programs in slum areas. The program will succeed and sustain as long as residents take active participation," he said.