Friday, July 3, 2009

Debt for Sumatera Nature Swap

The cutting and burning of forest trees in Sumatera have endangered the lives of Sumatran Elephants, Orangutans, Tigers and Rhinos living in the forest, and causing global climate changes.
This deforestation process has worried the United States, Australia and Germany, so they try to persuade Indonesia to stop said process by offering the so-called Debt for Nature Swap program.

According to UPI, last Tuesday the United States has signed an agreement with Indonesia that reduce our debt to the US by almost US$ 30 million over the next 8 years. In return, Indonesia would protect and restore its tropical forests. The program will conserve tropical forests in Sumatra including the Batang Gadis National Park, Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, Way Kambas National Park, and Siberut Island. Eligible areas cover a total of 18.4 million acres.

And according to Kontan, previously Indonesia has signed a similar agreement with Germany that reduced a 70 million Euros, in return we have developed the Barisan Selatan National Park and the Leuser National Park.
At present, the government is negotiating with Germany for the reduction of 20 million Euros debt, and with Australia for the reduction of AUS$ 75 million debt.

I sincerely hope that the agreements would be implemented accordingly without any foul play, so that our forests would be green again and the endangered animals would live peacefully in their habitat.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Julong,
Thank you for your visit & comment.