October 28, 2009

Nurdin Hasan, The Jakarta Globe

Banda Aceh. Wild animal attacks in Aceh, particularly by elephants and Sumatran tigers, are highlighting the worsening conflict between wildlife and humans owing to the increasing destruction of natural habitat caused by illegal logging.

On Tuesday evening, about 17 elephants in a remote area in Geumpang, Pidie district, destroyed three houses and ate the owners’ rice stocks.

“In the last few days, the elephants have also destroyed tens of hectares of rice fields which were ready to harvest, not to mention other crops like cacao and coconut,” said Muhammad Gapi, a local resident.

Muhammad said the three families whose houses were destroyed had moved to the homes of relatives.

“We cannot do anything about the elephant attacks. They even chase people that they come across on the street,” he said.

Muhammad Sabi Basyah, a local public figure, said the locals had reported the problem to the Pidie district administration but no action had been taken. The elephants have been attacking residences in the area for the last two months.

In January, two girls were killed when wild elephants entered their plantation in Seulawan Montain, Laweueng, Pidie district.

Elephant attacks have also occurred in other regions like Aceh Jaya, West Aceh, East Aceh, and South Aceh. There have also been tiger attacks in Aceh, including an incident in South Aceh last week.

Munawar Kholis, a veterinarian from the Wildlife Conservation Society in Banda Aceh, said that in the last three years there have been at least 17 incidents between animals and humans.

The attacks have been blamed on the shrinking forest cover, despite the logging moratorium issued by the Aceh government in the middle of 2007.

And the problem is not only being seen in the province but in other parts of the country as well, as wild animals lose their shelter and sources of food.

According to data from Greenomics Indonesia, a policy development institute, between 2006 and 2009, more than 200,000 hectares of forest were cut down to supply the wood needed for post-tsunami reconstruction.

“It’s no wonder there are so many natural disasters like floods and droughts,” Vanda Meutia Dewi, Greenomics coordinator, said on Sunday in Banda Aceh.

Although Governor Irwandi Yusuf introduced a moratorium more than two years ago, illegal logging remains rampant.

Temporary leader of the Aceh Legislative Council, Hasbi Abdullah, said: “Aceh’s legislature is committed to saving the forest by establishing a special environmental commission to handle forestry and environmental issues. If we fail, then in the next four years, Aceh will enter an ecological emergency, threatening economic activity.”

However, Irwandi claimed the logging moratorium hadn’t failed because some 500,000 hectares of forest had been saved through the rejection of felling licenses.

http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/human-animal-conflicts-as-aceh-forests-cut-down/338268

By Fidelis E Satriastanti

Several major regulations issued over the past five years have made the country’s natural resources more prone to exploitation, an environmental law expert says.

“This country’s paradigm, especially in the forestry and mineral sectors, is still more focused on the opportunities for investment,” said Rino Soebagyo, executive director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law. “It’s only about ‘exploiting’ our natural resources, ignoring public access [to these resources].”

The government, he said, has ignored sustainable development in favor of managing the environment with the goal of squeezing out as much money as possible.

“The basic rule of sustainable development is finding the balance between economic, social and environmental concerns,” he said. “Unfortunately, our government has only chased economic growth, without considering that the environment has to be preserved as an asset for future generations.”

As President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s new administration begins its work, green groups have been lobbying officials to review regulations they see as bad for the environment. These include the 2007 Law on Coastal Areas and Small Islands Management, the 2009 Law on Mineral Rights and Coal Mining, and ministerial decrees on peatlands and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

“The Forestry Law has one article that says cutting down one tree can be considered illegal logging,” Rino said. “This is very outdated, and major illegal loggers have never been successfully caught. Instead, there have been plenty of cases involving residents cutting down just one tree and being considered illegal loggers.”

Rino praised the recently passed 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law, saying it could be used to counter the negative environmental impacts of other government regulations. He added, however, that political will and courage would be required to implement the law.

Experts say the new law is stronger than the one it replaced, the 1997 Environmental Management Law. The new piece of legislation carries stiffer sanctions for violations and addresses more environmental issues outside of pollution.

“The new law doesn’t just talk about ‘brown issues,’ meaning that it does not only consider water and air pollution, but it also covers spatial planning management, law enforcement and also green permits,” Rino said.

He said the law gave the State Ministry for the Environment the authority to issue green permits, which are a prerequisite for obtaining business permits.

“So, in the future, if there is a violation of the green permit, the state ministry will have the authority to withdraw the company’s business permit, forcing the company to temporarily close down,” Rino said.

“The law has also been strengthened in terms of the AMDAL [environmental impact analysis], which used to involve just visibility studies, but now is a compulsory scientific assessment to obtain a green permit.”

http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/environmentalist-calls-for-review-of-unfriendly-laws/338227

By Annie Marie Musselman

View the AMAZING photos here:
http://www.photophilanthropy.org/slideshow/gallery_annemariemusselman2.html

The life we live as humans is, for the most part, something we have created. Our surroundings have affected and changed us. There is a life however, that many animals like orangutans, chimpanzees and elephants lead that is subject to cages, torture, neglect, and forced over-breeding. These are the horrors of captivity.

Animal’s lives have little worth in our culture. Their habitats are ruined for commodities such as palm oil, or soy. They are put into cages, while their bodies are made sick and used for scientific research. These realities cause me to pause and ask, “What makes humans and animals so different that these practices go on unchecked?” I have experienced amazing bonds with animals in my quest for the universal answer to this question.

I sensed that the human world needed to come face to face with creatures in their sanctuaries. My work is encouraged by the belief that if humans witness the innocence and beauty of these animals in my pictures, they will realize what they have lost due to technology, overpopulation, and the rejection of nature, and maybe stop endangering them. It is my intent therefore, to document the world of sanctuaries and animal refugee camps. With the urgent issue of climate change and the state of environmental catastrophe it is important to document the lives of these animals, some on the verge of extinction, and how they are saved by sanctuaries in an artful way. Two of my current projects have come together to create a larger exhibition I am calling For The Innocents.

My animal conservation project began last year when I learned of deforestation by palm oil plantations in Borneo. I visited the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Sanctuary in Central Kalimantan, Borneo with Eco writer, Hillary Rosner. Eleven of the photographs were published in Rosner’s article Searching for Sanctuary in Newsweek, August 2009.

View the AMAZING photos here:
http://www.photophilanthropy.org/slideshow/gallery_annemariemusselman2.html

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Source: Daily Express, East Malaysia
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=68450

Kota Kinabalu: State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the greatest challenge in the effort to conserve the forests is not the environment but managing human greed.

He said laws alone are insufficient to ensure all conservation efforts would be successful because there are many greedy people today and this makes conservation work even more difficult.

“I just don’t understand why the richer they become, the more they want,” he said at the closing of a regional forum on “Enhancing Forest Ecosystem Connectivity and Corridors Within the Heart of Borneo in Sabah” at Pacific Sutera, Tuesday.

He said while he is not against people enriching themselves, they must have a limit to making profit.

“They must think of the welfare and interest of other people instead of only their own.”

Hence, he said, forest conservation would only be successful if everyone inculcates a passion to conserve the forests for the present and future generations.

As a member of the State Cabinet, Masidi said he is proud of what the Government has achieved. The past two years they 10 new forest reserves have been gazetted.

He said it took a lot of political will and the price they paid was worth billions of ringgit in terms of revenue to the State.

“Success comes from the heart without being told to care for Mother Earth. So, it’s high time to return what we have taken from nature,” he said.

Masidi, who is also Karanaan Assemblyman, said since people live among or close to nature, it should only be natural that they ensure the forest is preserved or enhanced so that it could also be enjoyed by future generations.

However, conservation is not something that is popular and that if people really implement what he had suggested some would certainly be earning less money.

Reminding the participants of the forum, he said God gave the forest to mankind for the latter’s benefit. “Therefore, humans should look after Mother Nature and not destroy it.

“And as responsible corporate citizens, they should only take what is necessary. But we have done practically everything to nature and because of that we have to be ashamed of ourselves.

“We have destroyed beautiful forests and hills and polluted the rivers to satisfy our greed.”

Citing oil palm plantations in Sabah, Masidi said although things are improving with their show of cooperation in the preservation of riparian reserves, there are still those in the East Coast who plant oil palm right up to the riverbanks.

The pesticide and fertilisers they sprinkle and spray on the palm trees, during the rainy season would be washed into the river, thus causing the river inhabitants to dwindle or go extinct.

In the 1980s when he was the District Officer in Sandakan, he said when they put their hands in the river they could literally grab prawns from the water and haul them up.

Nowadays, he said it would be the crocodiles waiting to pounce upon unwary humans.

Nevertheless, he said it is unfair to totally blame the oil palm plantations for the degradation of the Kinabatangan River as research revealed that plantations are not the main factor contributing to the river’s decline.

Conservation, therefore, is an invincible guideline to humans as to what should be done to conserve the forests.

“At the same time, there should also be strong political will (to ensure conservation efforts are successful),” he said

Published in Malay Mail
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/16801-win-ngo-support

October 26th, 2009

TO claim that attacks on palm oilbased products may be politically motivated show how much out of touch the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) is with consumer awareness and power, or, the MPOC is choosing to play fast and loose with the facts.

Show us your evidence, MPOC, of any political motivation by NGOs. The MPOC might better take note of and act upon the advice given by Sabah’s Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Environment, Datuk Masidi Manjun.

“I urge all departments, government bodies, not to treat NGOs as enemies but rather as friends. I think we need to tell ourselves that we are not exactly the experts on everything that we think we know. And I urge all of you not to be too defensive of what the NGOs are going to say, but in fact to take their words quite seriously,
and ask ourselves are we moving in the right direction.”

My guess is, the palm oil industry will win friends and customers much more quickly if it will only stop, listen, and take advice from those who offer it freely.

Neither do we want to see palm oil banned. But, most of all we also do not want to see palm oil produced at a catastrophic cost to the environment – do we?

Sean Whyte
Chief Executive,
Nature Alert

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian authorities will replant trees in a forest ravaged by logging on Borneo island in the latest effort to restore the natural habitat of endangered orangutans, a global environmental group said Wednesday.

The government of eastern Sabah state signed an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund this week to replenish trees in a piece of forest territory totalling 2,390 acres (967 hectares) over the next five years, the WWF said in a statement. The area is nearly the size of 1,500 soccer fields.

The effort is part of the “Heart of Borneo” initiative, led by the WWF since 2007 to strengthen conservation planning among Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, the three countries that have territory on the island.

Environmentalists say Sabah’s orangutans, pygmy elephants, rhinoceroses, sun bears and other animals are at risk because their jungle habitats are increasingly taken over by loggers and plantations.

Earlier this month, Sabah authorities announced plans to bar companies from planting palm oil and other crops near rivers to preserve the natural habitat.

A French-based conservation group, Hutan, recently estimated that fewer than 11,000 orangutans remain in Sabah. Up to eight times that number existed 15 years ago.

Source: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/live/article/352625–malaysia-to-replant-trees-in-logging-ravaged-borneo-to-save-endangered-orangutans

October 28, 2009
Source: The Independent

Leading article: Planting the seeds of environmental disaster

The typical image used to represent the process of global warming is a power station, belching out black smoke. But an equally valid image would be an oil palm sitting serenely under a tropical sky. Rainforests are being cleared across south-east Asia, West Africa and South America to make way for palm oil plantations, which produce the world’s cheapest vegetable oil. Yet deforestation is one of the greatest drivers of climate change. The destruction of the planet’s rainforests is responsible for 20 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, as hardwood trees that have locked up carbon for decades are felled and burned.

Tropical deforestation might feel like something that is remote from our daily lives in Britain. But the reality is that the consumer choices millions of us make every day are contributing to the destruction of these forests. Half of all packaged food products sold by our supermarkets are made with tropical palm oil.

But this is not an exclusively British phenomenon. Food manufacturers across the world are helping to drive demand for palm oil. And in so doing they (and we) are adding to the forces of destruction assailing our precious, carbon-storing rainforests.

Palm oil cultivation does not need to involve such rampant destruction. If planted on marginal land, its environmental impact can be minimal. And many Western companies signed up three years ago to a commitment to use Asian palm oil from sustainable plantations, rather than the variety produced by rainforest clearance. But as we reveal today, their record in following through on these commitments has been miserable. Relatively few have made serious efforts to ensure that their palm oil is sustainably sourced. Although British manufacturers have generally been better than those in the rest of Europe, their achievement is nothing to boast of. The food industry as a whole has failed to make a decisive shift to sustainable palm oil.

Failure threatens on other fronts too. As we reported this week, the fate of a global deforestation treaty that will be presented to international delegates at the Copenhagen climate change summit in December is hanging in the balance. As presently framed, this treaty would grant Western subsidies to poor nations that cut down virgin rainforests and replace them with palm oil plantations. This is the opposite of what is required. Subsidies from rich countries to encourage developing nations to preserve their rainforests are undoubtedly needed. They will encourage sustainable economic growth in some of the poorest nations in the world while protecting a common international environmental resource. But there can be no question of subsidising palm oil plantations.

If this treaty is ratified in its present form it would be a disaster. Its effect would be to encourage the destruction of rainforests and accelerate the catastrophic release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that such felling would entail. Responsible governments need to ensure this treaty is modified before it reaches Copenhagen. But relying on high politics is not enough. Consumer pressure is also needed. At the moment, many food manufacturers are paying little more than lip service to their environmental commitments. Shoppers in the rich world should increase the pressure on such firms by boycotting products made with unsustainable palm oil.

The threat of environmental disaster that hangs over us comes in many shapes; and few loom larger than the shape of the oil palm.