Nature Alert: Many local administrations remain unaware of REDD

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Many local administrations remain unaware of REDD

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 10/21/2009

While the global society has praised Indonesian government’s role in promoting REDD, many local administrations are even now unaware of the scheme, with most questions still about how much money they could get.

An official from Papua Barat provincial office, Toto Mei Untardo, and forestry expert from North Sumatra University (USU) Onrizal warned that the government needed to conduct a massive campaign on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) issues to local authorities.

“The follow-up [to disseminate REDD] is very late. Most of the regencies and cities in Papua know nothing about REDD issues,” he told a discussion organized by the Conservation International (CI) in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Papua and Aceh were the first provinces declaring their readiness to host a REDD pilot project during the Bali climate change conference in 2007.

Onrizal said poor understanding of REDD could endanger the projects and inflict losses on local administrations.

“What they are thinking is that they will get a lot of money,” he said.

He said the capability of forests in Sumatra to absorb carbon was higher than those in Kalimantan and Papua.

“But, up to now, there is no special institution to deal with the REDD at provincial and regency level, making it difficult to disseminate the issue,” he said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/21/many-local-administrations-remain-unaware-redd.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.