Indonesia: Public Concern for Environment Tied to Income, Green Group Says

Gabriel Kereh Jakarta Globe 22 Apr 13

Government efforts to mitigate climate change remain mere rhetoric, while the public approach to the issue varies according to wealth, says a leading environmental advocate.

Chalid Muhammad, the chairman of the Indonesian Green Institute, said that changes in the weather were becoming increasingly unpredictable, affecting the livelihoods of many people, particularly fishermen and farmers, who are the most vulnerable.

“There are two different groups of the society with different awareness levels. The middle- to upper-class people in the cities are getting greener. Even though this seems to be pretty exclusively elitist, this is good,” he said.

“The second one is the lower class, and that is divided into two groups. The first are the traditional people, who embrace tradition and environment-respecting standards. The second are the people who base their livelihoods on labor. They tend to be used by the rich things like illegal mining and illegal logging.”

Chalid said that although the latter people “know that they might die from what they do, this is about the option of dying tomorrow out of hunger or dying in a couple of years from destroying the environment.”

He also accused the government of not setting an example for positive change.

“These people see the government issuing permits that are destructive [to the environment], either directly or indirectly, by letting things happen and ignoring them,” he said.