ACTION ALERT
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Support Indonesian Logging Moratorium
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OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org
ecological decline that can only
end in ecological, social and
political collapse. Forty percent, or 64 million hectares, of
original rainforest cover has
been lost in the last 50 years. In less
than a decade most accessible
lowland rainforests will be gone. The
major threat to these
timber processing facilities
developed to feed the overdeveloped
World's unsustainable demand for
tropical timber products. This
grotesquely over-sized
rainforest liquidating infrastructure requires
ever greater amounts of legal
and illegal logs. Continuation of the
status quo will destroy
more than forests - they are an
ancient testament to evolutionary and
ecological brilliance, and
contribute significantly to natural
processes that make the World
habitable for all God's creatures.
As
industry continues to move its
capital to the World's other last
remaining forest wildlands. A stand
must be made now and predatory
logging banned from all
remaining primary rainforest wildernesses, or
there will be no large forest
expanses remaining to power global
ecosystems, house its species,
drive weather patterns and hold and
cycle carbon. Indonesian and Malaysian loggers (and
others-but these
are the real bad guys), those
that purchase their products, and
governments that do not give a
damn threaten the Planet with ecocide.
Indonesia's government and donor agencies - the World
Bank in
particular - have shown a
disappointing lack of leadership and vision,
and have mostly focused upon
programs to increase enforcement of
commercial logging regulation
(an approach that has failed repeatedly
in the past and will
again). Political will and financial
resources
to downsize Indonesia's
unsustainably large logging industry and
timber trade - the only policy
that could possibly meaningfully
conserve and restore Indonesia's
rainforests - is virtually non-
existent.
In a rare piece of potentially positive news in a country
where even
National Parks are being illegally logged, the Indonesian
government
has announced a moratorium on
logging in order to halt illegal
logging. This is a crucial opportunity - perhaps the
last best chance
- to save Indonesia's
rainforests. Please respond to
Rainforest
Action Network's alert below and support
the proposed moratorium. I
have edited their sample letter
- my inclusions in [ brackets ]
emphasize the importance of
using the moratorium to reduce timber
processing capacity. I have also found an email address <
presiden@ri.go.id > for Indonesia's President. Please send email,
letters and faxes based upon the
sample letter below.
g.b.
For much more information on "Indonesian logging
moratorium" see the
Forest Conservation Portal's full-text search of over
1000 web sites
and 18,000 archived news
articles at:
http://forests.org/cgi-
bin/texis.exe/webinator/forestmain?query=indonesian+logging+moratorium
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: WRITE
INDONESIAN PRESIDENT MEGAWATI TO ENDORSE HER
PROPOSED
MORATORIUM ON LOGGING
Source: Rainforest
Action Network, http://www.ran.org/
Date: June 5, 2002
On May 13, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri
called for a
temporary moratorium on logging
in Indonesia in an effort to halt
illegal logging and save what's
left of the country's remaining
forests. According to the World
Bank,
forests in the next 15 years if
the government does not act quickly
and strongly against
deforestation activities.
According to the World Resources Institute, Indonesia has
lost forty
percent, or 64 million hectares,
of its original forest cover in the
last fifty years. The rate of
deforestation is accelerating, from 1
million hectares destroyed each
year in the 1980s to a current 2
million hectares' loss per year.
Indonesia's lowland forests harbor
the country's highest
biodiversity and timber value. At current rates
of forest loss, the region of
Sumatra's lowland forest will be gone by
2005, and Kalimantan's lowland forest will have been
devastated by
2010.
Citigroup, North America's largest financial institution
and RAN
campaign target, is a key
financial backer of Indonesian rainforest
destruction via palm oil
plantations and pulp and paper operations. It
is business partners with
Indonesian palm oil company, London Sumatra
(Lon Sum), a company that has been implicated in bulldozing
and
burning vast areas of forests,
as well as violating the human rights
of indigenous peoples. Citigroup
is also a top investor in Asia Pulp
and Paper (APP), one of
Indonesia's largest and most destructive pulp
and paper operators.
American consumers also play a central role in the
destruction of
Indonesian forests. Major forest
products distributors such as Boise,
Georgia Pacific, and Home Depot
profit from Indonesian forests'
devastation. Woods such as lauan and ramin from these forests
permeate
the American market in the forms
of plywood, tool handles, flooring,
and furniture.
Act now to protect Indonesia's precious biological
heritage! Write the
Indonesian president immediately to demonstrate that she
has
international support for a
moratorium on logging ancient rainforests!
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You may wish to work from the following sample:
Her Excellency Megawati Sukarnoputri
President, Republic of Indonesia
Presidential Palace
Jakarta Istana Negara,
Indonesia
FAX 62-21-345-7782
presiden@ri.go.id
Dear President Sukarnoputri:
I wish to add my voice to those of many people worldwide
who are
applauding your pending decision
to a temporary halt of all logging in
the rainforests of Indonesia.
Logging, both legal and illegal, in Indonesia's remaining
primary
rainforests is causing massive
extinction and increasing poverty for
people whose subsistence depends
on healthy ecosystems.
The logging moratorium will allow your government to
address the
rights of indigenous peoples,
illegal logging being concealed by fraud
in the wood products industry,
and transitions to sustainable
economies that are not dependent
on rainforest destruction, including
logging, mining and monoculture
plantations.
[It is imperative that you use this moratorium to
dramatically reduce
the size of your unsustainably
large timber industry. Indonesian
forest sustainability depends
upon doing so, and the World's donors
should be challenged to assist
you in doing so.]
Please make the just and crucial decision to halt logging
in
Indonesia's natural forests as your lasting legacy to the
world's
species and future generations
of humanity.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
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RAN Press Release on Moratorium Announcement
http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=540&area=home
Jakarta Post Story
http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=541
ENN Story
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002-05-27-19.asp#anchor2
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