Saturday, January 30, 2010

Plan to Reduce Gas Emission

During the world's Group of 20 meeting in Pittsbugh, USA, last September, President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) had promised that Indonesia will reduce 26 percent gas emissions by 2020.

This promise can be achieved, if the government stop giving license to cut forest trees and convert protected forests into commercial plantations or other purposes. Beside that, it should also start a massive replanting of forests immediately.

But this seems to be difficult to achieve because according to NGO Greenomics, the Department of Forestry has proposed a forestry program that will allow conversion of 3.4 million hectares of forests into mining and development areas over the next 10 years. If the proposal is agreed, gas emissions will likely increase by up to 850 million tons over the next 10 years.

Beside that, there is another problem i.e. according to a study by the University of Indonesia, personnel of the military has been deeply involved in the illegal logging business that is destroying vast tracts of pristine forest and contributing to global warming.

For detailed media reports, please click here and here.

Considering the above, I hope that the government would immediately revise the forestry program and make efforts to stop involvement of military personnel in the illegal logging business.

Photo :  Courtesy of The Jakarta Globe/AP

12 comments:

George Polley said...

Oooh, ouch! None of this is good news. Destroy the earth in the interest of greed; not a good thing for anyone. As I like to say, "Greed blinds." It also kills Thanks for your post.

George Polley (JL Tostada)
Sapporo, Japan

colson said...

Co2 emissions should be reduced indeed. Perhaps it can be done, but it is hard to believe the priomises made by politicians and statesmen who will not be around anymore in 2020.

An increasing wealth for the average individual citizen means she/he will produce more CO2. The same goes for societies at large.

We may hope Indonesia will get richer during the next twenty years. So it will use more in stead of less ( fossile) probably - and produce more CO2.

Moreover, till this moment, TNI members have been involved in illegal logging - as you say. One may doubt wether government will succeed in disciplining them.

Unknown said...

Toasty,

First of all I would like to thank you for following my blog. I will surely follow yours too.

Deforestation is a very serious matter in our country because of the two factors that I have mentioned.
I like your beautiful phrase:
"Green Blinds, it also kills"

Unknown said...

Colson,

That's what so saddening, the promise for 2020 was made by a President who would no longer be in office after 2014.

I am sure that the current government will be able to close coordination, incl. disciplining the military, if is wants too keep the promise.
The most important thing is there should be a political will to keep the promise alive.

Edwin said...

we need to help save our planet. hi im from blogcatalog. keep in on the fight to save our earth

Ran Fuchs said...

There is a suggestion to use carbon certificate to offset the loss of income that comes from deforestation. That is, the bigger emissions of carbon in developed countries, will be able to offset their emission by paying Indonesia and similar countries not to log. This will give Indonesia the incentive to earn $$ from not logging. In a similar way that tourism $$ is the best protection against hunting in many countries

Unknown said...

I do so agree with Toasty..this is about greed.Mahatma Ghandi said:
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”.
There is wisdom in not neglecting to give back what we took like replanting the forest consistently and maintaining the eco system because of the interdependency of living things to plants.If we keep taking recklessly there will come a time when theres nothing left to take and when disaster strikes by then its too late.Have we learnt nothing from previous disaster?

Unknown said...

Kytro,

Thank you for the support.

Unknown said...

Ranfuchs,

Indonesia has concluded debt for nature swap agreements with some countries incl. Germany.
Many countries are still discussing about a multilateral agreement.

While the result is still unclear our President promised that we will voluntarily reduce gas emission by 26% over the next 10 years.
And we will be able to reduce more if other countries provide financial back up.

Unknown said...

Umihoney,

I always like your pick of quotes, and I'll quote again, Mahatma Ghandi said:
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”.

We should continuously maintain what nature has given to us. None of them can be taken for granted.
Failure in do so has caused unstable climate and disasters like floods, droughts.

Anonymous said...

Bad news Harry; especially the somewhat open secret about military involvement

Unknown said...

Duckham,

Yes very bad news indeed, don't know until when will such involvement be ended. We can only hope & pray.