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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Stopping
Destruction of Indonesia's Forests Requires New Policies
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
07/19/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Reduction
in Indonesia's recurrent forest fires, and forest
ecological
sustainability, will require drastic changes in management
of the
country's remaining forests. Illegal
logging accounts for an
estimated
half of annual production. Legal
logging and forest
clearance
isn't much better, as forests are devastated across huge
areas
using overly intense management that precludes regeneration and
ecological
sustainability. A new report by WRI and
in-country
partners
recommends a moratorium on new concessions for oil palm,
timber
and other plantations; strengthening rules and penalties
against
clearing plantations with fire; a moratorium on the
transmigration
resettlement program; recognizing indigenous peoples'
forest
ownership; designating all remaining forest areas as a
permanent
forest estate; and establishing mechanisms for citizen
monitoring
of forest trends and threats. Bottom
line in my opinion,
the
scale of harvest and land clearance has exceeded what is
regionally
sustainable, and forest industries must be quickly
downsized
and brought within the body of law.
g.b.
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Title: New WRI Report Warns of Continuing
Destruction Of Indonesia's
Forests Unless New Policies are Adopted
Source: WRI Company Press Release via Business Wire
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: July 19, 2000
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--July 19, 2000--As the forest fire season
rages
in Indonesia, a highly critical report from the World Resources
Institute
warns that these fires will continue to occur unless the
government
makes drastic changes on how to manage the country's
remaining
forests.
``Current
Indonesian forest policies have provided powerful legal
incentives
for `cut-and-run' resource extraction,'' said Dr. Charles
V.
Barber, one of the authors of the report, Trial by Fire: Forest
Fires
and Forestry Policy in Indonesia's Era of Crisis and Reform.
``They
have failed to create effective mechanisms for enforcing even
minimum
standards of forest resource stewardship.''
The
report, co-published by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Indonesia
and
Telapak Indonesia Foundation, examines the destruction and
systematic
plunder of Asia's greatest rainforests under former
Indonesian
president Suharto. During his 32-year rule, Indonesia lost
at
least 40 million hectares of forests, equivalent to the combined
size of
Germany and the Netherlands.
Much of
these forests were granted as timber concessions to Suharto's
cronies,
his family and to ill-fated government projects like the
failed
effort to convert one million hectares of peat swamp forests in
Central
Kalimantan into rice fields. In the 1990s, oil palm and timber
plantations
replaced additional millions of hectares of forest.
Illegal
logging has become so prevalent, accounting for an estimated
half of
the annual production.
The WRI
report focuses on the 1997-1998 forest fires in Indonesia that
resulted
in the burning of 10 million hectares of forests. The smoke
shrouded
many towns in darkness at noon and exposed 20 million people
across
Southeast Asia to harmful smoke-borne pollutants for months.
According
to the government, total losses in 1997 because of forest
fires
reached as much as US$9.3 billion.
This is
more than double the combined damages assessed in the Exxon
Valdez
oil spill and India's Bhopal disaster.
Many of
these fires were deliberately set by plantation owners who
take
advantage of the dry season to clear the forests and plant export
crops
like palm oil. The problem was worsened by a drought induced by
the
periodic El Nino climatic phenomenon, which was particularly
severe
that year. Scientists predict that El Nino will reoccur within
the
next few years, increasing the chances for more fires.
``The
forest fires of 1997 and 1998 were just the latest symptom of a
destructive
system of forest resource management carried out by the
former
Suharto regime over 30 years,'' said Dr. Barber. He stressed
that in
order to prevent future infernos, the solution lies in the
major
restructuring of relationships between the state, the private
sector
and the millions of forest-dependent peoples living in the
nation's
forests.
Among
others, the WRI report recommends:
*
Instituting a moratorium on new concessions for oil palm, timber and
other
plantations until a national inventory of permanent forest
estate
is completed;
*
Strengthening rules and penalties against clearing plantations with
fire;
*
Declaring a five-year moratorium on the transmigration program and
re-examining
the objectives and methods of this massive resettlement
program;
*
Granting legal protection of forest ownership and use by indigenous
peoples
and assisting them to manage the forests sustainably;
*
Granting clear legal protection as permanent forest estate to all
remaining
forested areas in Indonesia;
*
Establishing effective mechanisms for independent citizen monitoring
of
trends and threats related to forest lands and resources.
``The
key question is whether government forest policy will lead and
smooth
the way for these changes, or will be dragged along by popular
action
- which is likely to turn increasingly violent - at the
grassroots,''
said WRI president Jonathan Lash.
The
World Resources Institute (WRI) is a Washington, DC-based center
for
policy research that provides objective information and practical
proposals
for change to foster environmentally sound and sustainable
development.
WRI
works with institutions in more than 50 countries to bring the
insights
of scientific research, economic analyses and practical
experience
to political, business and non-governmental organizations
around
the world. For more information, visit WRI's Website at:
http://www.wri.org/media/
The
report is available at http://www.wri.org/media/
---------------
Contact:
World
Resources Institute
Adlai
J. Amor, Media Director, 202/729-7736
Email:
aamor@wri.org
or
Dr.
Charles V. Barber, WRI Senior Associate
Tel:
(2) 631 04121
Email:
cvbarber@ibm.net
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