Days before the President
of Indonesia is set to announce a moratorium
on forest destruction, we’ve got a copy
of the draft moratorium, crunched the numbers
and the news is not good. The data shows
this proposed moratorium does little to
protect areas that are not already off limits
under Indonesia's existing laws. Unfortunately,
if the plan moves forward as is, the forests,
peatlands and all the wildlife living within
them will continue to suffer deforestation
from the pulp, paper and palm oil industries.
This land is vital to
the survival of rare tigers and orang-utans
as well as the livelihoods of local people.
Unfortunately under this plan, the majority
of forested orang-utan habitat will remain
unprotected and vulnerable to destruction.
According to the government’s
own data, the moratorium would fail to protect
45 million hectares of natural forest and
peatland, an area almost twice the size
of the United Kingdom. It would both fail
to stop substantial rainforest destruction
and to help Indonesia achieve its target
of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by
41%.
In fact, the maps created
using this data show that the moratorium
would only protect an additional 12 million
hectares of forest and peatland, much of
it located in the least accessible areas
of Papua and Kalimantan - which are not
under immediate threat of conversion.
Recently, Golden Agri-Resources’
(GAR), Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer
and the Sinar Mas Group's palm oil arm,
became an industry leader by announcing
a new plan to stop deforestation, which
if properly implemented would protect high
carbon value forests and areas vital to
local livelihoods and habitat critical to
the survival of the last remaining tigers
and orang-utan populations in the world.
The Government urgently
needs to take action to improve the new
moratorium and follow the example set by
GAR.
By halting further forest
clearance, both in new and existing concessions,
it would buy time for the government to
improve forest governance, develop a plan
for low carbon development, and review existing
concessions – many of which have been granted
illegally.
It would also help create
conditions that would provide the industry
with incentives to take the leadership needed
to make Indonesia a world-class model for
low-carbon development. And, it would set
a model of good governance, transparency
and accountability, to ensure the substantial
cuts in greenhouse gas emissions the world
needs to prevent dangerous climate change.
Greenpeace supports
the a large coalition of organisations in
Indonesia calling on the President to issue
a moratorium that is not time-bound, which
protects all natural forests and peatlands,
including secondary forests. It should apply
to areas within existing concessions and
those areas granted in principle to industry
on 31 December 2010.
Indonesian industry
targets for palm oil, pulp and paper, and
agriculture could all be met without any
additional clearance of natural forests
or peatlands through increased productivity
of existing yields and other measures.
+ More
2011: The year of forests
for people – and people for forests
Greenpeace activists
work with the Deni people of the Amazon.
Image: Greenpeace / Daniel BeltráThe
United Nations has labelled 2011 the International
Year of Forests. The slogan is “Celebrating
Forests for People”. It's a nice slogan.
But does it mean anything? Will it bring
us closer to protecting the forests and
the people and biodiversity that depend
on them? Let's hope so.
Forests are important
for a number of reasons - but today it’s
their role in helping to prevent climate
change that gets the most attention. Simply
put, forests store nearly 300 billion tonnes
of carbon in their living parts. This is
roughly 40 times the annual greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions from fossil fuels. Deforestation
accounts for more climate pollution than
all the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes,
and ships combined. So, from a climate point
of view it’s better to keep the GHGs where
they are by preserving and protecting the
forests.
In international negotiations,
primarily at the UNFCCC talks, this is known
as reducing emissions from tropical deforestation
and degradation – what policy experts abbreviate
as “REDD”. The concept is fairly simple:
rich, developed countries provide funding
to help developing countries protect their
forests and invest in clean, green development.
In the process, the entire world benefits
because forests and the ecosystems they
form are beyond doubt essential for the
survival of life on Earth.
Yet in our haste to
mitigate climate change, we mustn’t forget
the indigenous peoples and other communities
who live in and depend upon forests for
survival. So, most certainly lets actively
pursue the slogan ‘celebrating forests for
people’ whilst at the same time inspiring
‘people for forests’ – because we all need
to work together to make sure forests are
protected.
We must also remember
the other important benefits bestowed by
forests. Tropical forests are one of the
greatest storehouse of nature's diversity
on Earth, over half of all land-based species
of plants and animals view the forest as
home. Forests regulate water flow and rainfall
so we depend on them to grow our crops and
food. Loss of a forest in one part of the
world can have severe impacts in another
part of the globe - scientists have found
that loss of forest in Amazonia and Central
Africa can severely reduce rainfall in the
US Midwest. And much, much more.
For Greenpeace, every
year is a year to celebrate forests for
people – and people for forests. I've been
an environmental campaigner for 30 years
now, and forests and their protection hold
a special significance for me. I've always
thought that their importance can best be
summed up by an old Cree prophecy: "Only
after the last tree has been cut down ...
only then will you find that money cannot
be eaten." We campaign to protect forests
because of the vast range of amazing biodiversity
they support, because they capture and contain
climate changing greenhouse gases and -
last but not least - because without healthy
thriving forests, planet Earth cannot sustain
life.
So let’s all take action
to protect forests in 2011 and celebrate
them this and every year.
