Papua Oh Papua

The Western part of the Island of Papua became a part of the Republic of Indonesia after the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) transferred administration of the territory in 1963 (here).

In 1969 the territory became a legitimate part of the Republic of Indonesia, and became the province of West Irian, later changed to Irian Jaya in 1973.

With a total land area of 421,981 Km2, the province is the largest province in Indonesia, but it only has a population of 2,9 Million. The province has very rich natural resources a.o Gold and Copper mines, also natural oil and gas, however until now the income of the people is one of the lowest in Indonesia.

The said Copper and Gold mines are run by PT Freeport Indonesia, owned by the multinational company Freeport-McMoRan, since the late '60s are the largest in the world. 

These mining activities have cause continuous troubles with local people, and the mines' Tailing have severely impacted the natural environment.


Before May 1998, the authoritarian regime of the late former President Soeharto has managed to fully control the province, silenced it's people's protests, and eliminate separatist movement. by the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
 
After that year, liberal democracy came to Indonesia, and things started to change, people in the province expressed their protests on various matters such as demand fair share of PT Freeport's revenue, injustice, corruption, poverty etc.

In compliance with the demands of the people, 2002, the name of the province was changed to its original name i.e. Papua.

In 2003, the central government declared the western most of the province, around the Bird's Head peninsula, a separate province called West Papua. 

The people of both provinces of Papua has staged protests against the PT Freeport, including strike by its 8,000 workers following several shooting incidents that killed of some the workers.

On Monday 1 August, an internal conflict between two rival candidates of the Gerindra Party for the election of the Head of the Puncak Jaya Regency has caused the death of 21 people.

On Wednesday 3 August, an Army helicopter was shot down by the OPM. Tempo quoted the Army Chief of Staff General Pramono Edhie Wibowo as saying that the helicopter was shot while it was evacuating the body of a soldier who was shot to death the day before at Puncak Jaya. There were no more casualty and the helicopter was able to fly again.

I felt that the social unrest and violence that follow in the provinces of Papua and West Papua were sparked by the same causes like in other parts of Indonesia, i.e. Socio-Political-Economic-Judicial Injustice, Poverty, Corruptions, Greedy Politicians, etc.

I therefore hope that the central government, law enforcement agencies and politicians in Jakarta and in both provinces would do their very best to eliminate all those causes, or at least minimize them, so that their people would live far more happier

World Environment Day 2011

Banner : Courtesy of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

Environment Award for Indonesia

The news media have been reporting about destruction of nature in Indonesia, such as Destruction of Ocean Coral and Mangrove Forests and Deforestation.

For this reason, I am very glad when I read the news in Tempointeraktif about Indonesia receiving an Environmental Award from the United Nations. 

I hope that this award will strengthen the government's will to implement the Environmental Protection and Management Law.

Award for Indonesia Sea Promotion

Thursday, 25 February, 2010 | 19:38 WIB 

TEMPO Interactive, Nusa Dua:Indonesia received the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Award at the opening of Global Environment Forum yesterday.  

Indonesia is considered to be successful in promoting sea management and the life source potentials in the sea.  

The award was provided by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and received directly by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.  

“This award will push us to be even better in managing the sea,” said the President.

ROFIQI HASAN

New Hopes for our Forests

Rain-forests in the Indonesian islands of Sumatera and Kalimantan are getting more and more ' bald ' every year.

According to data provided by the government, in the period of 2000 - 2006, deforestation cost 1.09 million hectares of forest land annually.

The main cause of this massive deforestation is the issuance of licenses by the Department of Forestry that allowed the transformation of forests, including protected forests, into commercial purpose area, among others for huge plantations.

Considering these frightening facts, I was very happy when the news media reported about some 'winds of changes' that seems to be blowing into the right direction.
First, there was the new Environmental Protection and Management Law that provide better protection a.o empowering the Forestry Police with authority to investigate.
Secondly, there's President SBY's promise at the G20 Summit Meeting last September that Indonesia shall lower its Emission to 26% by the year 2020, implying that we will make very serious efforts to stop the process of deforestation.
Thirdly, there was the statement of the new State Minister of Environment that warned the new Minister of Forestry to stop transformation of the forest.

For detailed reports on the above, please click here, here, here and here.

I hope that the State Minister of Environment will always cooperate and coordinate very closely with the Minister of Forestry to make sure that the process of deforestation in every parts of Indonesia can be stopped or at least minimized. Beside, companies that have been given licenses to convert industrial forests would be force to fulfill their re-planting obligation. That way, forests in Sumatera, Kalimantan, Papua and other islands in Indonesia would not be so ' bald ' anymore.

Photo: Courtesy of Okezone

Indonesia & Environment

As I was about to leave the office yesterday, I felt the floor moved under my feet.

Later, I learned from the media that there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter Scale at Ujung Kulon, Banten, more than 100 kilometers from Jakarta.

Although the earthquake happened for only less than one minute however me and my colleagues were quite shocked. This is obvious because we were still shocked by the series of earthquakes that rocked the Island of Sumatera and Java in the last four years, the latest ones being in West Sumatera & Jambi that killed hundreds of people and many others wounded and homeless.

As I drove home, I thought about the writings and documentary films made by environmental experts who said that human beings are partially responsible for causing the natural disasters.

I realized that many natural disasters in Indonesia were caused by human beings for example the never ending Hot Mud Flow caused by the improper Oil Exploration by PT Lapindo Brantas in Sidoardjo, East Java. There is also the gold & copper mining of Freeport-McMoran in Papua that caused damage to a large area. Besides, there's plan to transform protected forest (national parks) into coal mining in East Kalimantan.
The saddest thing is that some state owned companies are responsible for violation of the environmental laws & regulations, e.g petroleum company Pertamina has spilled oil in East Kalimantan.

But then I remembered about Indonesia's efforts to prevent or at least minimize the destruction of nature, among others by promulgating the new Environmental Protection and Management Law. Further, there is also President SBY's promise at the G20 Summit last September to reduce emission to 26% by 2020. This was immediately supported by U.S President Obama who promised to provide funds to countries that reduced their emission.

For detailed media reports on the above, please here, here, here, here and here.

Considering the above, I hope that there will be better efforts to protect the environment e.g by enforcing the Environmental Protection and Management Law and punishing any one who violates.

Amendment of the Environment Law

Destruction of natural resources in Indonesia have been going on for so many years, and inflicting heavy losses not just to human beings but also to animals.

In the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, huge area of forests have been burned and/or cut either legally or illegally by companies and individuals who want to get money from the timber and/or land clearing for plantations. But unfortunately, not many of those who are responsible have been severely punnished.

In the eastern part of the island of Java, land area flooded by the mud flow caused by improper drilling process by PT. Lapindo Brantas is getting larger from day to day. Yet, no favorable solution for the victims has been found until now.

And in the western part of the island of Papua, environmental destruction caused by the gold & copper mining operations of PT Freeport-McMoran is getting larger from day to day.

In spite of the fact that Indonesia has already enacted an Environmental Management Law No. 23/1997, however considering there has been too much bureaucracy, resulting in very weak law enforcement and unfinished law enforcement.

Considering these facts, today the People's Representative Council (DPR) has passed the Environmental Protection and Management Bill, which will strengthen the role of the Ministry of Environment in terms of law enforcement & covers both environmental protection as well as recovery.
The new law will grant power to National Park Rangers so that they can investigate and arrest anyone who destruct the environment.
At present, the authority of the civilian Rangers is limited to investigating and forwarding any crime reports to the Police. With the new law, the Rangers would be able to investigate and arrest perpetrators and forward investigation reports to the Prosecutors.

For details on the above, please click here, here and here.

I hope that the new Environmental Protection & Management Law would be enforced accordingly so that there would not be illegal deforestation, improper mining operation and other acts of environment destrcutions in Indonesia. And anyone responsible shall be punnished.

Photo: Courtesy of The Jakarta Globe.

Protection of the Green Turtle

The Green Turtle is an endangered species which exist only in several countries of the world.

In Indonesia, the Green Turtle are found in the provinces of West Kalimantan, Bali and East Java. They are protected by Law No. 5/1990 regarding Conservation of Natural Biological Resources and Ecosystem, which stipulated that anyone who takes, destroy, sells, keep or posses Eggs and/or Nests of protected Wild Animals shall be punished with maximum 5 years in Prison and Fined a maximum of Rp 100 million.

But in reality, there are cases in which the Eggs of the Green Turtle were sold by the local people and even by the staffs of the Nature Conservation Agency in West Kalimantan, many of which are exported to Sarawak, Malaysia. Some of the sellers have been jailed.

For details on the above, please click here, here and here.

Considering that the Green Turtle is an endangered species in Indonesia, I hope that their protection can be improved i.e. by enforcing the abovementioned law.

Photo: Courtesy of Kompas.