Nature Alert: Dying oceans 'life and death issue': Indonesia

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Dying oceans 'life and death issue': Indonesia

Personal comment: More fine words from the President, just as he uttered a year ago in Bali about how 'we' must protect rainforests and orangutans'. You know what has happened since.

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MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) — The destruction of the world's oceans due to climate change and overuse is a "life and death issue" for humanity, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday.

"We must come to the rescue of the oceans. We must save them from the ravages of abuse and over-exploitation by humankind, from the havoc due to pollution and dire effects of climate change," Yudhoyono said at a global conference on oceans.

"This is a life and death issue for the community of nations, including Indonesia, who prides itself on being the world's largest archipelago."

Ministers and officials from more than 70 countries are meeting in the Indonesian city of Manado for the World Ocean Conference, the first global meeting on the relationship between oceans and climate change.

Nations aim to pass a joint-declaration aimed at influencing the direction of talks in the Danish capital Copenhagen in December, which will discuss a new global climate change agreement to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol.

"Today it is time for the world to hear yet another important message: that we can only survive the 21st century if we are united in caring for and preserving our oceans," Yudhoyono said.

The president made no mention of his own country's massive failings in conserving its environment, ranging from rampant illegal logging to over-fishing and the destruction of coral reefs through the use of bombs.

Greenhouse gas emissions from extensive logging of Indonesia's tropical forests have pushed Indonesia to become the world's third-largest emitter behind the United States and China.

Illegal fishing and pollution are widespread, with garbage and diesel oil clogging the waters at Manado's harbour close to the conference venue.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iN60tLCSUhtDzhoexbE8_yD9XqCw

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.