Indonesia cracks down on deforestation in symbolic u-turn

Indonesia’s new president announces plans to protect rainforest and peatlands, signalling a new direction for country with worst rate of deforestation in the world
Damian Carrington The Guardian 27 Nov 14;

Indonesia’s reforming new president is to crack down on the rampant deforestation and peatland destruction that has made the nation the world’s third largest emitter of climate-warming carbon dioxide.

Joko Widodo signalled the significant change of direction for Indonesia when he joined a local community in Sumatra in damming a canal designed to drain a peat forest. Halting the draining and burning of peatland will also tackle the forest fires which have trebled since 2011 and can pump smoke across the entire region.

Indonesia suffers more deforestation than any other country, including Congo and Brazil where new data shows deforestation is dropping. One study estimated 80% of the deforestation in Indonesia was illegal, with most of it being cleared for palm oil and timber plantations.

During his visit to Sungai Tohor village, in Riau province, Widodo announced a review of plantation company operations: “If they are indeed destroying the ecosystem because of their monoculture plantations, they will have to be terminated. It must be stopped, we mustn’t allow our tropical rainforest to disappear because of monoculture plantations like oil palm.”

Widodo also said he would strengthen legal protection for peatlands, which store massive amounts of carbon and rarely burn if left undisturbed.

“Peatlands can’t be underestimated, they must be protected because they constitute a special ecosystem,” he said. “This [drainage] canal dam is very good and must be made permanent. What’s best is for peatland to be given to the community to be managed for sago [palm starch similar to tapioca]. Community management is usually environmentally friendly, but if it’s given to companies it is turned into monocultures like acacia and oil palm.”

Greenpeace welcomed the move and said it hoped it would lead to better forest and peatland protection in Indonesia, where the campaign group said existing laws are “weak and poorly enforced”.

“Indonesia’s new president has wasted no time stepping into an international leadership role, well timed to position his country ahead of next week’s UN climate negotiations in Lima, Peru,” said Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace’s international executive director.

Indonesian President to review licenses of companies converting peatlands
Antara 27 Nov 14;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo has said he will review the licenses of companies that have converted peatlands into monoculture plantations as they can damage the countrys ecosystem.

"I have told the minister of environment and forestry to review the licenses of the companies that have converted peatlands into monoculture plantations if they are found damaging the ecosystem," he stated in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Thursday.

He noted that during his field inspection in Riau province, he had found sago plantations damaged because of the development of monoculture plantations.

He said the green cover seen from the sky must be verified whether they are tropical rain forests or monoculture plantation forests.

President Joko Widodo has reaffirmed his intention to stop land and forest destruction in various places such as Sumatra and Kalimantan.

To prevent the tropical rain forests in the country from vanishing, we will continue the moratorium on concessions for plantations such as oil palm plantations, he stated.

Environment and forestry minister Siti Nurbaya has hinted that the moratorium on industrial forest concessions will be continued while an evaluation of problematic licenses is carried out.

"License moratorium will continue. No new licenses will be issued with regard to internal evaluation," she emphasized while inspecting the measures to prevent land and forest fires in Pekanbaru, Riau, Sumatra, on Tuesday.

She revealed her office was studying the reports about forest concessionaires that have caused problems as well as concessionaires that have been neglected by concession holders.

She cautioned that the situation could trigger forest fires and encroachment as well as illegal logging.

The Association of Indonesia Forest Concession Holders (APHI) has asked President Joko Widodo to evaluate the benefits of moratorium saying it will not be effective to curb deforestation, especially land and forest fires.

"Thirty-four percent of fire spots from February to March 2014 were found in the forests that are under moratoriums. I wish the government would reveal the map to show the condition of forests before and after imposing moratoriums. We must not be naive or feel proud, because I am convinced the real condition is even worse," APHI chairman for industrial plantations Nana Suparna remarked in Pekanbaru on Tuesday.

The government has over the past three years stopped issuing forest concessions through Presidential Instruction Number 10/2011, which has been extended through Presidential Instruction Number 6/2013.(*)

Jokowi Pledges to Act Against Forest Fires
Kennial Caroline Laia Jakarta Globe 27 Nov 14;

Meranti Islands, Riau. President Joko Widodo on Thursday verbalized his preference for farms owned by people, rather than corporations, to curb the haze crisis that stems from peatland fires in Riau and elsewhere in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

During a visit to Sungai Tohor village in the Meranti Islands district, one of the regions in Riau often hit hard by forest fires and haze, Joko said people’s farming had a minimal impact to the environment, when compared to corporate monoculture plantations.

“The best thing to do is to give the land to people so they can use it to plant sago. What’s made by people is usually environmentally friendly. They won’t do any harm to nature,” the president said on Thursday. “However, if we give the land to corporations, they will only switch it to monoculture plantations.”

Residents of Sungai Tohor and other surrounding villages said several pulpwood plantation companies operating in the area burned land, causing haze while damaging local people’s sago plantations.

Joko said corporate-run monoculture plantations such as those consisting of oil palms and pulpwood were the main cause of environmental damage in the district.

He said he had ordered Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya to review concessions for plantation companies in Riau and elsewhere in Indonesia.

“If they are indeed destroying the ecosystem with their monoculture plantations, they will have to be terminated,” Joko said. “It must be stopped, we mustn’t allow our tropical rainforests to disappear because of monoculture plantations like oil palms.”

Siti, who was visiting the Sungai Tohor site along with Joko, said she would terminate licences of companies whose activities damage the ecosystem.

“We will work on this matter. There are so many things to do starting from technical matters, spatial planning and water management, to law enforcement and environmental education for people and corporations,” she added.

Joko also said on Thursday that the government would employ a new approach to manage peatlands, vast expanses of which can be found in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Fires on these two Indonesian islands, which often cause transboundary haze problems affecting neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, begin on peatlands as it is drained and subjected to slashing and burning to give way for the cultivation of commercial plants.

Local farmers and big corporations have for years been placing the blame on each other for igniting fires on peatlands, which cause recurring haze crises.

Corrupt officials, meanwhile, have been blamed for lax law enforcement that allows the fires and haze crises to recur every year, increasing economic costs as airports are forced to close, which disrupts flights, as well as harming local residents’ health.

Carbon time-bomb

Environmentalists also have lamented the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air, contributing to global warming and climate change. They describe peatland as a so-called “carbon time-bomb.”

According to Wetlands International, a Netherlands-based NGO engaging in wetland conservation and restoration, peatlands contain twice as much carbon stock as the entire forest biomass of the world (550 gigatons of carbon). Wetlands says Indonesia has the dubious honor of being responsible for the highest CO2 emissions from peatlands due to logging and drainage — amounting to around 900 megatons per year.

Indonesia’s environmental ministry has said peat fires contributed to 25 percent of the country’s carbon emissions between 2000 and 2005, second only to deforestation.

The new approach Joko says he wants to adopt deploys use of canals and water gates to control water levels in peatlands to prevent them from burning easily. Canals also allow farmers to optimize soil conditions to grow plants without having to first set fire to the land.

A pilot project was completed last year in Central Kalimantan under the supervision of the government-run Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund.

Joko, in a symbolic gesture, installed a water gate on a canal surrounding a plot of peatland in Sungai Tohor.

“This canal [water gate] is initiated by our people, and is a positive step, therefore it should be followed up by the government, permanently,” he said.

“It will keep peatlands wet. That’s the key [to manage peatlands]. They will be wet all the time so they won’t easily catch fire, intentionally or unintentionally.”

Minister Siti said her office would also educate local farmers how to build ditches and install water gates through peatlands to make them fire-resistant.

“We’ll work on this as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Environmentalists applauded Joko’s “ blusukan asap .” “Blusukan,” a Javanese term meaning impromptu visits, usually to constituents by officials. It has become trademark activity of Joko that has contributed to his popularity and later landed him the presidency. “Asap” is an Indonesian term meaning smoke or haze.

Joko in fact made the Riau visit after Sungai Tohor villager Abdul Manan began a petition in late October against the haze crisis that has often plagued Riau, asking for Joko to come and see for himself the sites in the center of the crisis.

The petition, called “Blusukan Asap,” was registered at petition.org and has been signed by 27,900 people as of Thursday.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment, or Walhi, hailed Joko’s Riau visit as proof of the president’s commitment to solving ecological problems.

Walhi executive director Abetnego Tarigan, though, added that the president must soon follow up the visit with “concrete actions” in the form of firm law enforcement.

“Among concrete actions that President Jokowi can immediately do is ordering the termination or review of concessions for companies proven to have been involved in forest and land fires,” Abetnego said, referring to the president by his popular nickname.

“Law enforcement must continue legal action against companies that have been named suspects, as well as develop investigations into companies that civilians have filed reports against,” he added.

International environmental group Greenpeace, meanwhile, voiced its support for the canal initiative, saying that clearance and drainage creates dry peatlands, laying the foundation for forest fires that can burn for days or even months.

Permanent protection

Greenpeace considered the initiative as proof of Joko’s commitment to protecting Indonesia’s peatlands.

“The country’s existing peatland regulations are weak and poorly enforced. We look to Jokowi now to take clear action to stop expansion by industry into peatlands, to crack down on illegality and to support the permanent protection of peatland landscapes,” Longgena Ginting, the country director of Greenpeace Indonesia, said in a press statement.

Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo also extended his praise.

“I welcome President Joko Widodo’s vision for peatland protection, which has the potential to slow Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Naidoo said.

“Indonesia’s new president has wasted no time stepping into an international leadership role, well timed to position his country ahead of next week’s UNFCCC climate negotiations in Lima, Peru.”

Greenpeace said when left in its natural state, peatland rarely burns. However since draining began, the number of fires recorded in Indonesia by satellites has sky-rocketed, reaching 6,644 in 2011 and climbing further to 21,467 fires so far this year.