Jakarta Globe, November 23, 2012
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Environmental
watchdog Greenpeace has welcomed a statement by Forestry Minister Zulkifli
Hasan calling for a two-year deforestation moratorium to be extended once it
runs out at the end of the year.
On
Wednesday, Zulkifli said he wanted to continue the moratorium on issuing
forestry permits for peat and primary forests, adding he was certain that
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would also agree because of the policy’s
importance in helping Indonesia cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent
by 2020.
In a
statement released on Thursday, Greenpeace urged Zulkifli to work with the
president to use the extra time to strengthen the moratorium.
“In order
to achieve the objectives it was designed for, the moratorium needs to be
strengthened very quickly by including a review of all existing forest
clearance licenses, and the protection of all peatland and secondary forest
areas,” Yuyun Indradi, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia, said in
the statement.
He added
that to be more effective, the moratorium needed to be results-based rather
than time-bound.
The
moratorium is tied to a $1 billion assistance package from the Norwegian government,
which has made it clear that it would not pay to protect Indonesia’s forests
unless there was a verifiable reduction in deforestation.
Zulkifli
said that there were currently some 64 million hectares of forest in Indonesia
that could be classified as primary and peat forests, and vowed that their
zoning would not be changed.
He added
the government was open to input whenever there was a need to amend the
moratorium map, with the public welcome to help identify forest areas that were
not yet included and zones that had undergone land-use conversion or had their
protection rescinded.
 |
| An
aerial view of a swath of forest in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan, cleared to make way for an oil palm plantation.(Reuters Photo/Crack Palinggi) |
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