Nature Alert: Minister cautions local forestry officials

Thursday 20 May 2010

Minister cautions local forestry officials

Minister cautions local forestry officials

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Thu, 05/20/2010

Regency forestry officials must be prudent when approving requests for commercial forest use, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Tuesday.

“Regents currently want to convert all [protected] forests into areas for other purposes,” Zulkifli said at a national forestry congress.

“Be careful or you may face criminal charges.”
Provincial and regency forestry officials attended the congress, which was intended to increase cooperation between the central government and local authorities in developing the forestry sector.

Zulkifli said that a high demand to convert forests, lack of state funds for forest protection and law enforcement snags were the greatest challenges to developing Indonesia’s forests.
The Forestry Ministry has a five-year contract with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to rehabilitate 1.6 million hectares of “critical” forests, plant trees in 2.65 million hectares of forests and stop illegal logging and forest fires, Zulkifli said.

“It is our target. We need cooperation to reach it,” Zulkifli said.
Millions of people live in poverty near Indonesia’s 120 million hectares of tropical rainforests, say independent reports. The country has the world’s third largest forest area.

Regency forestry agency officials should defend local people, said Zulkifli.
Local people should be given land to support their livelihoods and to prevent conflict in the forests, he added.

“You can require that industrial forest owners give 10 percent of their regions to local communities,” Zulkifli said.

“If we don’t defend [local people], then who will?
“It is not fair to reject requests for two hectares of forest from local people and give hundreds of hectares to big companies without hesitation,” he said.

One participant criticized the Forestry Ministry for not involving local officials when drafting regulations for the industry.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/05/20/minister-cautions-local-forestry-officials.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.