Tuesday 27 October 2009

Greenpeace sets up camp in Sumatra forest to prevent climate destruction


Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 10/27/2009


Greenpeace has set up a "climate defender camp" in Indonesian rainforest to protect forest from deforestation to help deal with the climate change.

The camp, placed in Kampar Peninsula in Sumatra, was aimed to bring urgent attention to the role that deforestation plays in driving dangerous climate change, a critical issue to be addressed at the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit in December.

“We are taking up position at the front line of forest and climate destruction to tell world leaders that to avert climate chaos they must tackle deforestation here and now,” Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace South East Asia forest campaigner said in his statement.

He said that would remain there for several weeks.

He said that much of forest that once surrounded the Peninsula has been destroyed to make way for plantations, largely for products like paper and palm oil, which are transported worldwide and used to make chocolate, toothpaste and so-called ‘climate-friendly’ biofuels.

Greenpeace is also calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to give the climate some breathing space by instigating moratorium on any further destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests or carbon rich peat soils they grow on.


http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/27/greenpeace-sets-camp-sumatra-forest-prevent-climate-destruction.html