Yahoo News 12 Nov 09;
JAYAPURA (AFP) – Logging and agribusiness is threatening environmental destruction in Indonesia's Papua region, one of the world's last vast wildernesses, local leaders said on Thursday.
The governors of the two provinces in the region on the western end of New Guinea island told an international environmental conference a strategy was needed to avoid the mistakes that have decimated other Indonesian regions.
"Pressure and threats to biodiversity in Papua are increasing. Papua is becoming a target for massive agro and forestry industry investment," West Papua Governor Abraham Atururi said at the conference, jointly organised with environmental groups WWF and Conservation International.
Atururi said his government had received an increasing number of requests for development and feared environmental destruction from illegal logging aimed at clearing land for plantations.
"Papua should not repeat the failure to manage forests and biodiversity that has happened in Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra," he said, referring to massive development on those islands that has seen tropical forests dwindle.
The governor of Papua province, which sits on the eastern end of the region, Barnabas Suebu, said preserving the tropical forest-blanketed region was key to helping absorb the gases that cause climate change.
"The capacity of Papua's 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of forests to process CO2 is equivalent to the carbon footprint of nearly all the population of Europe," Suebu said.
Indonesia, which spreads across over 17,000 islands, has been a key advocate for plans being floated ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December that would see developing countries paid to conserve forests and peatlands.
Deforestation, largely on Borneo and Sumatra, has seen the country become the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Papua biodiversity conference expected to yield real actions
Niken Prathivi, The Jakarta Post 13 Nov 09;
The first Papua International Biodiversity Convention for sustainable development, which runs from Tuesday to Saturday, is expected to produce fruitful recommendations including a road map to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Unfccc) in Copenhagen next month.
Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu said Thursday the convention being held in Jayapura was expected to inspire real actions in order to bring fresh ideas to the Unfccc.
“This [event] is one of the steps between the Unfccc in Bali in 2007 and the Copenhagen convention,” Barnabas told a press conference on the sideline of the convention Thursday.
“Our idea in organizing the four-day event is to produce applicable steps in maintaining biodiversity, especially in building sustainable development in Papua.
“The results of this convention will be presented at Copenhagen to show to the world that Papua is capable of handling environmental issues, especially in reducing emissions and mitigating global climate change effects,” he said.
Barnabas said Indonesia is now heavily dependent on Papua’s forests for biodiversity and oxygen supply. Therefore, the convention would emphasize the preservation of Papua’s forests.
Papua has a total of 41.25 million hectares of forests. Some 50 percent of the total forest area is allocated as conservation areas; 30 percent is for production forests; and the remaining 20 percent is set aside for conversion forests.
“However, of around 8 million hectares of forests that are allocated for conversion, we will probably use only a million hectares,” Barnabas said, adding that the converted land could be used for oil palm plantations that would be sustainably managed to avoid damaging the forest ecosystem.
Barnabas further said that Papua has started to apply a policy to plant 10 trees for every tree felled.
“Under this policy, the Papuan people will start to earn a living from planting and nurturing trees, rather than felling them as they used to do.”
These real actions, said Barnabas, are examples of initiatives that could be implemented at an international level through the Copenhagen event.
“So, I’m really hoping that this convention produces fruitful recommendations as a follow up to the country’s commitment in mitigating climate change and emissions.
“In Copenhagen we will definitely present what Papua has already done and is about to do [for nature conservation], and hopefully, we could earn concrete financial gains from the REDD scheme,” said Barnabas, referring to the scheme for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.
Prominent environmentalist Emil Salim said the world had committed to prioritize sustainable development by, among other things, preserving the environment.
“With its richness and uniqueness in biodiversity, Papua could be an open laboratory for the world in finding new ways to implement sustainable development,” said Emil, a member of a presidential advisory council, adding that Papua had half of Indonesia’s total biodiversity.
“Through this convention, I really hope Papua can lead the world in methods of carrying out development without damaging the environment. We could start to give added value to our natural resources, instead of exploiting them,” he added.
West Papua Governor Abraham Oktavianus said he considered Papua a standard bearer of global forest conservation.
“Let’s do something to avoid the possible destruction of Papua’s forests,” Abraham said in a statement.
