Nature Alert: RI says it can handle forest fires alone

Friday 21 August 2009

RI says it can handle forest fires alone

Ary Hermawan , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 08/20/2009

Indonesian officials denied Thursday they were ignoring international offers to help combat increasing haze problems from forest fires in the region, claiming they would welcome any form of assistance other than manpower to tackle widespread blazes in the eastern part of the archipelago.

Masnellyarti Hilman, deputy for environmental damage control at the State Ministry for the Environment, said Indonesia was still capable of tackling the forest fires on its own.

“If we can deal with it on our own, why do we need to seek help from others?” she said.

Reuters reported Wednesday that Indonesia, home to the world’s second-largest area of rainforest, had ‘appeared to bat away’ offers from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei to help deal with the haze problem.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, who held a press conference after attending a ministerial meeting in Singapore, seeming to evade questions from journalists on the matter.

He did not pick up his mobile phone when contacted for comment Thursday.

Masnelliyarti said Indonesia had asked its neighboring countries to provide water-bombing facilities, not fire-fighters, to help with the blazes.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/08/20/ri-says-it-can-handle-forest-fires-alone.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.