Indonesia is becoming increasingly concerned about the protection of its natural assets including forests…
(Jakarta) – Indonesia is becoming increasingly concerned about the protection of its natural assets including forests. In May 2011,the Indonesia’s forestry sector announced plans to “suspend natural-forest clearing in Indonesia and start holding itself and its suppliers to a higher standard of forest conservation.” The decision was taken following an imposed two-year moratorium on clearing forest under a $1 billion climate deal with Norway. The measure was taken to reduce emissions from deforestation, despite resistance from some government departments and from resource firms looking to expand in the archipelago.
Groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) or Greenpeace claim that Indonesia still does not do enough to preserve its forest resources. Earlier this month, The Indonesian government came under critics following the release by Greenpeace Indonesia of a report mentioning that the archipelago may have lost five million hectares of forest since the moratorium on deforestation came into effect in May last year. Norwegian Ministry of Environment, who backed the moratorium two years ago, remained also cautious about Indonesia’s achievement by telling that the country would unlikely achieve its target of reducing carbon emissions by 26% by 2020.
The government released however other figures showing that the moratorium is already having an effect. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Indonesia’s forests declined as much as 3.5 million hectares per year between 1996 and 2003, compared to 450,000 hectares per year between 2009 and 2011.
“This means that the moratorium on forest cutting has had an impact, and it’s proven to effectively reduce forest destruction,” explained the Minister to local journalists in Jakarta.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
