Cardonpositive.com, Saturday, 28 April 2007
Three Indonesian provinces have committed to measures to limit logging in their vast tropical rainforests and help the growing international battle against deforestation.
Ten percent of the world’s tropical rainforest lies in Indonesia, much of that in the provinces of Aceh in the West of the archipelago and Papua and West Papua in the East.
Their provincial governors have agreed at a World Bank initiated meeting that they would clamp down on illegal logging and take steps toward a sustainable forestry industry.
Aceh will impose a moratorium on all logging while a review of the forestry industry was carried out. Papua will revoke all licences of logging companies that cannot prove their operations contribute to sustainable forest management.
The recruitment of thousands more forest rangers and the use of helicopters will be part of the provinces’ response.
"We are determined to implement environmentally friendly policies, sustainable development and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," Reuters reports the governors saying.
Environmental groups have estimated that 80 per cent of timber sourced from Indonesia is illegally logged in a $US4 billion annual trade that wipes out 2 million hectares of tropical forest every year.
Some environmentalists express scepticism about developing countries’ stated commitments to stop illegal logging. They say they have failed in the past in places like Indonesia where a vast and poor population is spread over thousands of islands, making law enforcement very difficult.
Indonesia is one of a number of developing countries campaigning for rich countries to pay for protecting their forests, which are vitally important on a global scale as carbon dioxide sinks.
Australia, anxious to court its near-neighbour politically and economically, recently committed $160 million to kick-start an international initiative to stop deforestation. Most of the Australian money would be spent in Indonesia.
Reuters, Environmental News Service, Environmental Investigation Agency 27/4/07
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