Nature Alert: European Union Waits for Indonesia's Approval over Illegal Logging

Monday 11 May 2009

European Union Waits for Indonesia's Approval over Illegal Logging

Monday, 11 May, 2009

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The European Union is waiting for the Indonesian government to approve the agreement for not exporting illegal logs to the 27 countries in the European union.

The agreement, better known as Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), arranges technical matters on how to make sure the logs are legal.

One of its procedures is to obligate exporters to label the logs and have certificates.

The European Union (EU) requires this agreement with all log exporting countries offering logs to EU countries.

This is part of EU's support to stop illegal logging, to stop global warming, and to protect tropical forests.

Executive Director of the Indonesian Forest Entrepreneurs Association, Nanang Rofandi, said that Indonesia is in the final stages of approving the agreement.

He explained that EU and Indonesia have decided the system and institutions arranging the legal certificates for Indonesian logs.

http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2009/05/11/brk,20090511-175533,uk.html

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.