Best of our wild blogs: 23 Apr 10

Bukit Timah Dog Attacks
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore

Operation No Release
from The Leafmonkey Workshop and What the Fig?

Alien Gals on the Sidewalk
from Diary of a Boy wandering through Our Little Urban Eden

Dead crabs washed ashore on polluted beach
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Global phylogeography of pantropical plants with sea-drifted seeds: Hibiscus and Rhizophora’s case from Raffles Museum News

Dredging and massive reclamation next to Labrador until Oct 10 from wild shores of singapore

Earth Day 2010: We can live life with a little bit of dirt
from Flying Fish Friends

Sooty-headed Bulbuls at Lake Toba resort, Indonesia
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Catapulting birds at a Malaysian National Service camp
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Battle to save wild dolphins from Hong Kong park

Simon Parry and Hazel Parry Earth Times 23 Apr 10;

Meanwhile, 18 dolphins exported from the Solomon Islands in December and bound for a Singapore theme park are being looked after in the Philippines as a debate rages over whether they should be allowed into Singapore continues.

Hong Kong - In the doorway of a hotel in the Solomon Islands earlier this month, the star of an Oscar-winning documentary ambushed two theme park officials in his latest battle on behalf of the world's wild dolphin population.

Ric O'Barry - a trainer-turned-activist who featured in the 2009 film The Cove - targeted representatives from Hong Kong's Ocean Park who have been in talks about importing up to 30 bottlenose dolphins from the Solomons.

O'Barry claims the Animal Planet film crew he was working with saw Ocean Park employees cruising the coast of the Solomons' main island Guadalcanal trying to catch dolphins.

The representatives vehemently denied the allegation, saying they were only on an observation mission to track dolphins.

What is not at issue, however, is that the theme park wants to expand its dolphin stock and is in talks with the Solomons' government ministers about funding an "abundance survey" in return for an option to import dolphins.

Ocean Park's chairman Allan Zeman insisted the talks are at a "very preliminary stage" and that no dolphins would be imported until his officials are satisfied that the stock of bottlenose dolphins in the Pacific country is sustainable.

Conservationists with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) are nonetheless alarmed.

"We are opposed to the live capture of dolphins due to the massive animal welfare issues involved," said Sandy Macalister, executive director of the Hong Kong SPCA. "It is a trade that shouldn't exist in this day and age. It is extremely difficult to justify."

O'Barry, 59, who trained dolphins for the television series Flipper before becoming an activist, said the Ocean Park officials told him, "We are conservationists." He added, "Then when they saw our cameras they ran like hell."

Ocean Park chief executive Tom Mehrmann insisted his officials had not been involved in any dolphin hunts. "It was an observation boat. It had no nets. There was no capture of dolphins," he said.

"We are there to do research first and foremost," he said. "If there is a sustainable source we would look into whether we can get permits to import dolphins but it is a very long process."

The notion of taking wild dolphins to build up the breeding stocks at Ocean Park with its currently 16 dolphins, is an affront to some conservationists.

US-based pressure group the Earth Island Institute said it wouldcall for a boycott of Ocean Park and Hong Kong as a tourist destination if the import of dolphins goes ahead.

Mark Berman, director of the institute's international monitoring programme, said wild dolphins sell for around 100,000 dollars each. Describing the capture method, he said, "They are chased with nets and encircled.

"The ones they want to keep, they drag them onto a boat and manhandle them and give them blood tests. To get 30 they probably have to catch 100. It is intense harassment, an intense nightmare."

Only Mexico and the United Arab Emirates had imported wild dolphins from the Solomon Islands in recent years, Berman said. "Over 50 per cent of the dolphins shipped to Mexico are now dead," he said.

"Mexico has since banned the import of live dolphins from anywhere in the world because of that fiasco. In Dubai at least six of the 28 shipped there are dead."

Meanwhile, 18 dolphins exported from the Solomon Islands in December and bound for a Singapore theme park are being looked after in the Philippines as a debate rages over whether they should be allowed into Singapore continues.

"There is no sustainable catch of dolphins. We say it should be banned worldwide, period," Berman argued.

As far as the Solomon Islands government is concerned, activists like O'Barry and Berman are a costly and embarrassing annoyance they would prefer to see the back of.

Government advisor Dr Baddley Anita said trading a limited, sustainable number of dolphins overseas should be allowed, saying island communities already slaughtered 2,000 to 3,000 dolphins a year for food.

Whatever was agreed, activists had no place in the debate, he argued. "They are interfering with the cultural and traditional practice of dolphin harvesting and eating by the communities here," Anita said. "To us that is not acceptable."

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Room for bosses, greening experts to improve buildings

Lee Yen Nee, Straits Times 23 Apr 10;

Having green buildings such as this means a more efficient use of energy, which could reduce operational costs and carbon dioxide emissions. -- ST FILE PHOTO

SCEPTICAL bosses are preventing experts in 'greening' buildings from playing a key role in efforts to make buildings more ecologically sound, a conference heard yesterday.

Mr Tony Keane told the event that such experts - called facilities management professionals - deserve more recognition as they can help companies to operate more productively while being environment-friendly.

The president and chief executive of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) later told The Straits Times that such professionals must also realise that they can do more.

'It's an awareness issue for the management... It's also an awareness issue for facilities management professionals that they can truly make a difference and they need to be heard,' he said.

The conference - an inaugural one on sustainable facility management - was organised by the IFMA and the Building and Construction Authority's (BCA) education arm, BCA Academy.

Mr Ng Chin San, managing director of industrial facility management at asset manager UGL Premas, said proper facilities management can add value to businesses.

For example, a more efficient use of energy could reduce operational costs and carbon dioxide emissions.

BCA chief executive John Keung said that it was important to improve energy efficiency, especially in existing buildings as most do not meet the proper standards.

To achieve the target set by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development to 'green' 80 per cent of buildings here by 2030, Dr Keung suggested letting facilities management professionals lead the effort.

'A large number of old buildings will have to be retrofitted,' he added.

'It is therefore necessary for us to ensure that our professionals have the knowledge and skill sets to lead the effort... in the commissioning, operation and management of the green facilities and the associated technologies.'

With that in mind, the BCA inked a memorandum of understanding with the IFMA to collaborate on promoting and advancing the facility management profession.

Dr Keung said: 'BCA will work with IFMA to develop more programmes to train our local professionals to operate and manage the increasing number of sustainable developments efficiently and cost-effectively.'

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At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business

Leslie Kauffman, The New York Times 21 Apr 10;

So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins “to challenge corporate and government leaders.”

Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.

For this year’s celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water “can be stored, reused and recycled.” Gray Line, a New York City sightseeing company, will keep running its buses on fossil fuels, but it is promoting an “Earth Week” package of day trips to green spots like the botanical gardens and flower shopping at Chelsea Market.

F. A. O. Schwarz is taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin, an emerald-tinted plush toy that, as part of the Greenzys line, is made of soy fibers and teaches green lessons to children. The penguin, Greenzys promotional material notes, “is an ardent supporter of recycling, reusing and reducing waste.”

To many pioneers of the environmental movement, eco-consumerism, creeping for decades, is intensely frustrating and detracts from Earth Day’s original purpose.

“This ridiculous perverted marketing has cheapened the concept of what is really green,” said Denis Hayes, who was national coordinator of the first Earth Day and is returning to organize this year’s activities in Washington. “It is tragic.”

Yet the eagerness of corporations to sign up for Earth Day also reflects the environmental movement’s increased tolerance toward corporate America: Many “big greens,” as leading environmental advocacy organizations are known, now accept that they must take money from corporations or at the least become partners with them if they are to make real inroads in changing social behavior.

This year, in an updated version of a teach-in, Greenpeace will team up with technology giants like Cisco and Google to hold a Web seminar focused on how the use of new technologies like videoconferencing and “cloud” computing can reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. Daniel Kessler, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said it was necessary to “promote a counterweight to the fossil fuel industry.”

In 1970, Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York addressed a crowd of tens of thousands in Union Square on Earth Day, in an atmosphere The New York Times likened to a “secular revival meeting.”

This year, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will be in Times Square to announce measures to reduce New York’s impact on the environment. Using the same stage, Keep America Beautiful, an antilittering nonprofit organization, will introduce “dream machines,” recycling kiosks it is introducing with PepsiCo. The machines are meant to increase the recycling rates for beverage containers, which is estimated at about 36 percent nationwide.

Of course, a fair portion of the more than 200 billion beverage containers produced in the United States each year are filled with PepsiCo products like Mountain Dew and Aquafina; such bottle trash contributes to serious pollution on beaches, oceans and inland waterways.

Still, Matthew M. McKenna, president and chief executive of Keep America Beautiful, and a former PepsiCo senior vice president, said he jumped at the opportunity to have his former employer introduce its new kiosk at the event.

“We are not being asked to encourage the purchase of Pepsi or the consumption of their products,” he said. “We are asked to deal in the field with what happens when they get thrown out.”

While the momentum for the first Earth Day came from the grass roots, many corporations say that it is often the business community that now leads the way in environmental innovation — and they want to get their customers interested. In an era when the population is more divided on the importance of environmental issues than it was four decades ago, the April event offers a rare window, they say, when customers are game to learn about the environmentally friendly changes the companies have made.

Frank Sherman, United States green officer for TD Bank, said the company hurried to get its prototype of a highly energy-efficient bank branch building in Queens ready for Earth Day because that’s when “people are paying attention.”

The original Earth Day events were attended by 20 million Americans — to this day among the largest participation in a political action in the nation’s history.

This year, while the day will be widely marked with events, including a climate rally on the Mall in Washington, the movement does not have the same support it had four decades ago.

In part, said Robert Stone, a independent documentary filmmaker whose history of the American environmental movement is being broadcast on public television this week, the movement has been a victim of its own success in clearing up tangible problems with air and water. But that is just part of the problem, he noted.

“Every Earth Day is a reflection of where we are as a culture,” he said. “If it has become commoditized, about green consumerism instead of systemic change, then it is a reflection of our society.”

Green Auction To Mark 40th Anniversary Of Earth Day
Christopher Michaud, PlanetArk 23 Apr 10;

Artists, conservationists, business leaders and film and music stars from around the globe are marking the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day with a Green Auction to benefit the environment.

Organizers of the live auction on Thursday at Christie's and a companion silent online sale and related events, known as "A Bid to Save the Earth," expect to raise millions for four nonprofit environmental groups.

Artists Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst, Alan Sonfist have donated major works for the sale. Jeff Koons will provide a studio visit to the highest bidder and Annie Leibovitz has donated signed copies of her book.

Bidders can also vie for tennis lessons with John McEnroe, an afternoon in Central Park with Canice Bergen, dinner and the theater with actress Sigourney Weaver or a day on the set with Australian star Hugh Jackman.

Jewelry, watches and luxury green travel packages will round out the items up for grabs at Thursday's auction.

"It's an unprecedented collaboration," said Susan Cohn Rockefeller, who is co-chair of the auction with husband David Rockefeller Jr., a philanthropist and environmental activist.

With participation from quarters as far-reaching as Deutsche Bank, NBC Universal and retailers Target and Barneys, officials said the event reflected increasing understanding that business concerns are closely tied to environmental issues, and that two need not be opposing forces.

"We're building bridges with different communities," said Peter Lehner, executive director of the international environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Counsel, which will benefit from the event.

He added that his group has been working closely with such nontraditional environmental allies as manufacturers and labor unions.

Doug Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy, which is another beneficiary, agreed.

"There's a real business model behind environmentalism," he said.

Proceeds from the auction, which will be carried on Christie's live at www.christies.com and continues with a silent auction ending on May 6 (www.abidtosavetheearth.org), will also benefit Oceana and Conservation International.

Christie's is waiving all fees and commissions for the sale, and in nod toward being green is not printing a catalog. Native Energy is providing carbon offsets -- reduced carbon emissions to counter those associated with the event.

Charity auctions have raked in big bucks in recent years, and while the financial crisis has struck hard, experts say the art market is on the verge of a strong recovery.

Organizers say that raising awareness and stimulating even small donations to environmental concerns is a chief goal.

Those on a more modest budget can scoop up one of Barney's specially designed $40 T-shirts, a tie-in with the event.

Text happy tweeters are encouraged to text GOGREEN to phone number 20222 for a $10 donation, while both Twitter (Bid2SaveEarth) and Facebook (ABidToSaveTheEarth)are linked to the auction.

Read more!

Earth Day at 40: What Good Is It Now?

On its 40th anniversary, Earth Day is tamer but still a rallying point, experts say.
Ker Than, National Geographic News 22 Apr 10;

After 40 years, outsourced activism is replacing traditional Earth Day activities and green's gone mainstream—Earth Day even has its own Google doodle. So what's the point?

The first Earth Day in 1970 was a raucous, radical teach-in that helped spur clean-air, clean-water, and endangered species legislation in the United States.

Now, 40 years later, Earth Day is every day, as the saying goes. The thing is, it's also everyday—environmentalism has become a routine, if not universally embraced, part of U.S. culture, with green-ness as much a marketing tactic as a moral pursuit.

"I think the novelty [of Earth Day] has worn off," said Steve Cohen, the executive director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

"We're not burying cars or doing those kinds of dramatic gestures anymore," Cohen said. "Originally, it was seen as an expression of a radical political belief. It's hard to argue that it's radical anymore."

(See pictures of quirky Earth Day activities.)

Earth Day at 40: Tamed But Still Relevant?

Earth Day has been tamed, Cohen said, but that's not to say it isn't still relevant. Earth Day serves as a useful yearly reminder for people to consider their impact on the environment, he said.

"In our very fast paced society, [Earth Day] helps to get people to step back and think about things a little bit differently," he said.

But Earth Day is about more than just thinking, said Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University.

Earth Day provides a rallying point for people to address the unique environmental problems of their time, Roberts said.

For example, "each generation of college students reinvents [Earth Day] for the issues of their day," he said. At Brown, students these days focus largely on global wamring and reducing energy consumption, whereas in the past they might have been more likely to speak out on deforestation, chemicals that deplete the ozone layer, river pollution, or smog, he said.

Earth Day "really does bring people together and creates a community of people who care and who want to do something, even if it's just picking up trash in their neighborhood," he said. "I think we do need it."

At 40, Earth Day Still Drawing Green Greens?

Earth Day also continues to be a good introduction to environmentalism for novices, said Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network, a nonprofit group that aims to broaden the environmental movement and mobilize environmentalists worldwide.

Once upon a time, environmental advocacy was viewed by many as an elitist pursuit and the domain of high society, Rogers said.

"Before 1970 the movement was largely focused on land and species conservation," she said. That year "marks the line really clearly between the small group of people who were protecting the environment for hunting, shooting, and beauty purposes, and the rest of the world."

A shift was exactly the point of the first Earth Day, 40 years ago, Rogers said.

U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and activist Denis Hayes, who organized the first Earth Day, deliberately focused on the effects of the environment on human health—a topic relevant to everyone.

Earth Day Spurred "Profound Cultural Shift"

Earth Day "allowed the world to find a home in environmentalism," Rogers said. "It was an entry point for hundreds of millions of people ... Everybody had a stake all of a sudden."

That change in thinking was a "profound cultural shift," added Hayes, now president and CEO of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation, which promotes sustainable development in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

"Today, every American believes he or she has a fundamental right to a safe and healthy environment, and that nobody has a right to put something in that environment that adversely affects them or their children or their neighbors," Hayes said.

"For people of my era, the difference is night and day."

Easy Earth Day Activities = Government Inaction?

Earth Day going mainstream does have some downsides, however, said Brown University's Roberts.

"The first Earth Day was effective because so many people went out in the streets," Roberts said.

Forty years later, "people are asked to do much simpler things, like recycle or turn their thermostat to a certain level," he said. "They're not being asked to get out there and shake up the government and force a recognition of how things are produced and how much we consume."

Roberts draws a direct connection between today's tamer Earth Day activities and what he sees as the United States' ineffectiveness in the face of environmental problems such as global warming.

"There isn't the same level of civil pressure on the government to do anything about it. ... I think as the movement became professionalized, people were satisfied to recycle and send in their checks to somebody else to let them do the agitation," Roberts said.

"Before, people were out there doing it themselves."

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A Day for Coral Reefs in Indonesia

Hapsoro Jakarta Globe 22 Apr 10;

It is said that Indonesia is a maritime country, but most Indonesians do not know about their marine environment. The sea is only seen as a passage between islands, without realizing that beneath the vast stretches of water lies a rich biodiversity that is as rich, if not richer, than that on land.

In 1999, the government established the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, now the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, to watch over Indonesia’s various sea-related business. But it is not easy to mainstream maritime issues with people in this archipelagic country. Few people understand maritime issues, while government programs are still mostly land-oriented.

Although Indonesia initiated the international Coral Triangle Initiative and hosted the World Ocean Conference last year in Manado, knowledge about coral reefs and their preservation is still not significant enough.

On Thursday, a number of nongovernmental organizations, funding agencies, community groups and private companies invited people to use Earth Day to take another look at Indonesia’s seas — with coral reefs, as one of the most important links in the marine ecosystem, being given the main focus. This day, or as we call it: “Coral Day,” is when we can all contribute to the protection and preservation of coral reefs.

The objective of Coral Day is simple: to encourage the public to act now, without waiting for a program or institution to initiate efforts. Everyone can contribute according to his or her own strengths.

It is a sad fact that coral reefs are the most vulnerable environment to temperature increases brought on by global warming. Based on observations by Reef Check Indonesia in 2005, coral in the sea near Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport experienced extensive bleaching. In June 2009, along Bali’s north coast, from Pemuteran to Amed, Reef Check found coral bleaching of up to 4 percent, caused directly by an increase in the temperature of the water in the area.

Corals are living organisms that live symbiotically with networks of single-celled algae to form beautiful coral reefs. The algae produce the food for the corals, and the corals in turn give the algae a place to live. Environmental pressures, such as pollution or increases in water temperature, can cause the algae to die, which then causes the coral network to perish and eventually lose its color, thus it is called bleaching.

Preliminary evaluations by experts at last year’s Global Biodiversity Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, showed a hectare of coral reef could generate between $130,000 and $1.2 million annually. The fascinating beauty of the coral reefs is what attracts thousands of tourists every year to Bali, Wakatobi, Raja Ampat and many other dive spots across the country.

But why do average people need to worry about coral reefs that live hidden beneath the waves? Aside from preventing coastal abrasion, coral reefs are home to most of the sea creatures that we consume. As our coral reefs begin to disappear, so will our sources of food from the sea.

Before the late 1980s, Serangan, an island village not far from Kuta, attracted many tourists because of its rich coral reef and resident turtle population. The relatively untouched coral and sea grass was a paradise for innumerable species of fish. But then a large-scale reclamation project, intended to save the island from coastal abrasion, ironically ended the area’s marine utopia. The project damaged the delicate coral that supported the island’s fishermen and drastically changed the underwater landscape.

Fish catches in Serangan diminished and turtles, the star attraction of the island, left the area. In facing the man-made “disaster,” fishermen did not just accept their fate. Along with a number of nongovernmental organizations and the government, 36 people calling themselves the Karya Segara Fishermen’s Group took the initiative to restore their village. Today, it has developed into one of the most active groups working to restore coral reefs and distribute income to local fishermen by cultivating coral. Their success has also been followed by other fishermen who now see the changes it has brought, including the return of the fish in their area.

Coral Day invites the public to care, get involved and contribute. Caring doesn’t mean that everyone has to plant coral, but just know enough to care that every coral counts. If we throw away rubbish carelessly or pollute the sea, this can threaten the existence of the coral reefs. One coral may die today, but before we realize it, a whole area such as Serangan may lose its source of income.

Hapsoro is program director of Telapak, a community-based group of environmental activists.

Earth Day a Time of Reckoning for Green Activists
Fidelis E Satriastanti & Made Arya Kencana, Jakarta Globe 23 Apr 10;

To mark Earth Day on Thursday, activists in Jakarta urged the government to start taking saving the environment seriously, while those in Bali declared it Coral Day.

“Indonesia has too much to carry on its shoulders now, economic and social burdens, ecological burdens, disasters everywhere, too much debt and lots of environmental issues,” Teguh Surya, head of advocacy at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said on a talk show dedicated to Earth Day.

“With the Earth Day momentum, it’s more than appropriate to mark it by seeing how far we have damaged our ecology.”

On climate change, Teguh said the government had been focusing on preventing more damage caused by global warming but ignored the need for local people to survive and adapt to global warming.

“Most areas prone to climate change are coastal areas and small islands, but our government’s policies have been focusing only on the forestry sector,” Teguh said.

Nadia Hadad, project coordinator at the Bank Information Center, said all climate change funding had focused on mitigation efforts.

“As a developing country, Indonesia needs to adapt, but this issue has never fully been taken into consideration by developed countries because it has no close connection or effect on them,” Nadia said.

Zenzi Suhadi, executive director of the Walhi branch in Bengkulu, said people there did not need more money and wanted the government to stop investment.

“These people are very frustrated now seeing how mining and palm oil plantations have stolen their income and livelihood. They just want it stopped,” said Zenzi.

The province once relied on fisheries but now mining and plantations have taken over, meaning people had not choice but to encroach on forests or even send children out to sea to catch fish.

Meanwhile, on Serangan Island off Bali, locals celebrated Earth Day by inaugurating Coral Day, which was envisioned by green groups including Telapak and Kehati (the Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation).

“We hope this movement raises people’s awareness of the importance of coral, especially in tackling climate change,” Telapak activist Ery Damayanti said.

The observance includes a coral adoption program, where tourists can pay an individual or institution to plant coral on their behalf and get a certificate and regular reports on its progress. The donations would range from Rp 180,000 to Rp 5 million ($20 to ($555).

“The money will be used for coral treatment, seed supplies and other things,” Ery said.

Serangan Island had been chosen because of its strategic place to show the world that Indonesia was taking aggressive action to save corals. 

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Indonesian Officials Accused of Ending Probe in Riau Logging Case

Camelia Pasandaran & Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 22 Apr 10;

A coalition of activist groups on Thursday reported 12 public officials to the presidential Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force for suspected involvement in a major illegal logging case in Riau province.

The public officials include one governor, four district heads, two high-ranking police officials, an official from the Ministry of Forestry and four former officials from Riau’s forestry agency.

The coalition said that in December 2008, the Riau Police halted a probe into 13 companies suspected of illegal logging after being advised by “an expert” that the companies had not broken any laws.

The case had been investigated for about two years under Sutjiptadi, who was then head of the Riau Police, the activists said, but was immediately put on hold when it came to the current deputy chief of its criminal investigation division, Hadiatmoko.

Other high-ranking officials accused of involvement in the dropping of the case included Riau Governor Rusli Zaenal and the former Forestry Minister MS Kaban.

“We think the decision to stop the investigation is controversial and suspect that a ‘forestry mafia’ is involved,” said Febri Diansyah, legal coordinator at Indonesia Corruption Watch, which was part of the coalition.

He said the groups had leveled 15 charges against the public officials, including alleged abuse of power in issuing permits and paying bribes to central and local government officials.

Riau Police spokesman Zulkili said he had not yet heard about the allegations and declined to comment.

The head of the mafia eradication task force, Denny Indrayana, said it planned to re-open the illegal logging case.

“We will see whether there was indications of a judicial mafia,” he said.

Denny said many illegal logging cases, in other provinces as well as Riau, had been dropped under suspicious circumstances.

“Vast areas of our forests have been destroyed,” he said. “We need to send a clear message, a message that will make people involved in illegal logging think twice.”

Denny said the task force would comply with an order issued last week by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to investigate the country’s notoriously corrupt forestry sector.

“We will follow up the president’s directives,” he said. “The mafia task force has accepted, and will always accept, input from any party regarding illegal logging and indications of mafia involvement.”

Denny said the mafia eradication task force would work with the Forestry Ministry to investigate the illegal logging claims.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan recently said that up to 3.5 million hectares of land was cleared each year between 1997 and 2002.

The current rate of deforestation is about 700,000 hectares a year, mostly in Papua.

Of the 131 million hectares of forests across the country, only about a third is estimated to be original old-growth forest.

Additional reporting by Budi Otmansyah

Read more!

Malaysia Launches Campaign To Plant 26 Million Trees

Bernama 22 Apr 10;

PUTRAJAYA, April 22 (Bernama) -- In commemorating Earth Day on Thursday, Malaysia launched a nationwide campaign to plant 26 million trees by 2014.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas launched the campaign, carrying the theme "Green the Earth: One Citizen, One Tree", here.

The 26 million trees represent the estimated 26 million population of the country.

Some 16,200 saplings were planted in launching the campaign, with 500 planted at a site in Precinct 5 opposite the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) here.

The other trees were planted at selected sites in Alor Star (Kedah), Kangar (Perlis), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Seri Iskandar (Perak), Bachok (Kelantan), Kemaman (Terengganu), Pulau Melaka (Melaka), Seremban (Negeri Sembilan), Kulai (Johor), Temerloh (Pahang), Esplanade (Penang), Hulu Selangor (Selangor), Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) and Petra Jaya (Sarawak).

The types of tree planted included the cengal, cempaka, keruing, balau and kalumpang.

Uggah said the 26 million trees would be planted in stages and the process would be monitored by the relevant departments and agencies under the ministry.

"It is estimated that 38,470 hectares of denuded and logged forests, coastal areas and urban centres would be planted by 2014," he said when launching the campaign, also attended by Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup.

Uggah said the campaign was in line with the government's efforts to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the country had forest cover in accordance with Malaysia's commitment made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

The forest cover currently was 56.4 per cent, but if agricultural areas were taken into account, the acreage would rise to 75 per cent of the total land area, he said.

Uggah said it was estimated that at the end of the campaign, in 2014, some 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been absorbed due to the trees planted.

The figure was expected to rise if the planting continued nationwide, he added.

In KANGAR, Perlis State Secretary Datuk Mohd Zabidi Zainal represented Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Md Isa Sabu in leading the people at planting karas saplings in Sungai Batu Pahat near the state capital.

Going by the population of Perlis, more than 250,000 trees will be planted in the state by the end of the campaign period in 2014.

In reading out the menteri besar's text of speech at the event, Mohd Zabidi asked for the people's cooperation in the tree-planting campaign to make it a success.

In KINABATANGAN (Sabah), District Officer Latif Kandok led the planting of 200 saplings in the compound of the office and houses in an area known as an eco-tourism centre.

"The campaign can foster love for greenery among the people and raise awareness on efforts to conserve the environment," he said.

He called on the local community to plant more trees and refrain from engaging in open burning, levelling of hills and polluting of rivers so as to avert global warming.

In ALOR SETAR, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak officiated at the launch of the tree-planting campaign and called on the people to foster interest in planting greenery in their surroundings.

He said the state government had taken steps to replant mangrove and other suitable species of tree along the Kedah coast to protect the shore from strong waves and erosion.

"Kedah has 36 permanent forest reserves spread over 342,613 hectares covering 36 per cent of the total land area in the state," he said.

In TEMERLOH, Pahang State Financial Officer Datuk Norzan Ahmad represented Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob at the launch of the campaign at the Kemasul Forest Reserve.

Some 1,000 officers and staff of various departments and 500 secondary students from Temerloh each planted a sapling at the event.

Norzan, reading out Adnan's text of speech, said 1.48 million trees would be planted in Pahang over the next five years.

-- BERNAMA

One tree for every Malaysian
New Straits Times 23 Apr 10;

PUTRAJAYA: Yesterday was Earth Day, a day to mark our appreciation for our environment.

To commemorate the event, Malaysia launched a nationwide campaign to plant 26 million trees by 2014.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas launched the campaign themed "Green the Earth: One Citizen, One Tree" here.

The 26 million trees represented the 26 million Malaysian population.

Some 16,200 saplings were planted -- 500 in Precinct 5 opposite the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here and the rest at selected sites nationwide.

The sites were in Alor Star, Kangar, Universiti Teknologi Mara Seri Iskandar (Perak), Bachok (Kelantan), Kemaman (Terengganu), Malacca Island (Malacca), Seremban (Negri Sembilan), Kulai (Johor), Temerloh (Pahang), Esplanade (Penang), Hulu Selangor (Selangor), Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) and Petra Jaya (Sarawak).

The trees planted included cengal, cempaka, keruing, balau and kalumpang.

Uggah said they would be planted in stages and this would be monitored by the relevant departments and agencies under his ministry.

In his speech during the launch, he said it was estimated that 38,400ha of bare and logged forests, coastal areas and urban centres would be planted with trees by 2014.

He said the campaign was in line with the government's efforts to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the country had forest cover in accordance with Malaysia's commitment made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

Uggah said the forest cover now was 56.4 per cent, adding that by the end of 2014, some 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been absorbed by the trees that had been planted. He said the figure would increase if planting efforts continued.

In Kangar, some 250,000 trees will be planted in the state by the end of the campaign. Perlis State Secretary Datuk Mohd Zabidi Zainal, who represented the menteri besar, planted karas saplings in Sungai Batu Pahat yesterday.

In Alor Star, Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak launched the campaign at Taman Jubli Mas in Suka Menanti, while in Ipoh, Perak Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said some 2.8 million trees would be planted from now until 2014.

In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the planting of trees along the coastline would continue to prevent erosion.

Sabah had swung into action and planted many trees along its coastline after the 2004 tsunami. More than 600,000 mangrove and other species of trees were planted as a buffer.


To commemorate Earth Day, Musa led members of the state cabinet, elected representatives and heads of departments to plant 100 trees at the compound of the State Legislative Assembly building here yesterday.

State Secretary Datuk Sukarti Wakiman said similar events were held in 26 districts where more than 2,600 trees were planted.

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World Bank Chief Urges Action To Save Wild Tigers

Lesley Wroughton, PlanetArk 23 Apr 10;

World Bank President Robert Zoellick called on Wednesday for joint action among countries and organizations to save the dwindling numbers of wild tigers from extinction.

There are barely 3,500 tigers left in the wild. Their declining numbers are blamed largely on poaching and the slow destruction of their natural habitat by deforestation.

"2010, the Year of the Tiger, must be the year in which we take joint action to save this majestic species," Zoellick said at a photo exhibition by the National Geographic Museum, which focuses on the plight of endangered tigers and other big cats.

Zoellick has a personal passion for the conservation of wild tigers. Visitors to his office at the World Bank headquarters in Washington are directed to a table map showing the decline of wild tigers in the world, with troubled areas shaded in red and orange.

The World Bank, whose mission is to reduce global poverty, sees its role as trying to improve conditions in developing countries, which in turn would help to preserve the tigers' habitat.

Through the "Global Tiger Initiative," an alliance of governments and more than 30 international agencies, the World Bank has been working with countries such as India and Nepal to set aside more land for tiger habitat.

In South-East Asia the bank is working with groups to address the black market for body parts from tigers, common in countries like as China.

"Part of what this is about is getting people not to see development and conservation as opposing poles but how you can try to connect them together," Zoellick told Reuters Insider Television.

"By working with the countries in the developing world, that's the best chance to save this species, which after all is in the developing world."

A World Bank report in 2008 warned that "if current trends persist, tigers are likely to be the first species of large predator to vanish in historic times."

A summit in September in Vladivostok, Russia, will try to push for conservation commitments for the world's remaining tigers.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

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Compromise proposes Japan slash Antarctic whaling

Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 23 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The International Whaling Commission on Thursday unveiled a compromise proposal aimed at resolving longstanding rifts under which Japan would eventually cut its Antarctic catch by three-quarters.

The proposal, which will be voted on at a June meeting in Morocco, sets a 10-year plan that would bring Japan, Iceland and Norway back under the control of the 88-nation global whale body after years of rising tensions.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC), which led months of negotiations with the cautious support of the United States, said the package was a delicate set of balances that would save thousands of whales.

"It will be a major achievement if, despite some fundamental differences of views on whaling, our member countries can put these differences aside for a period to focus on ensuring the world has healthy whale stocks," IWC chair Cristian Maquieira said.

But many environmentalists strongly oppose the proposal, arguing that it would end a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling in all but name and risked reviving a dwindling industry in whale meat.

"This is probably the biggest threat to the ban on commercial whaling that we've faced since it came into force," said Nicolas Entrup of the Munich-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

"This is a critical moment for the conservation movement."

Under the proposal, Japan's Antarctic catch would go down to 410 whales next season and then 205 whales in the 2015-2016 season. Japan's annual Antarctic hunt has infuriated Australia, which has threatened legal action.

Japan currently plans to kill 765-935 whales each season in the Antarctic, although its latest catch was down to 507 whales due to sustained high-seas harassment by environmentalists.

The compromise would also allow the killing of 870 minke whales a year in the Atlantic, roughly in line with current total catches by Norway and Iceland, along with Japan's continued hunt in the Pacific Ocean.

The IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Japan employs a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants, while Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether.

The United States has helped spearhead the compromise but withheld a final judgment on the proposal, anticipating further negotiations through the June meeting in Morocco.

Monica Medina, the US commissioner to the IWC, said the bottom line for the United States was to save whales.

"The important thing here is that the IWC isn't working right now," Medina told AFP.

"Even with the moratorium in place, the number of whales being killed is increasing and if we can turn that around and decrease the number of whales being killed, that would be a good thing."

Advocates for the compromise say that IWC negotiations have been so consumed by arguments that the body has not taken action on growing threats to whales such as climate change, ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

But environmentalists say that the proposal rewards Iceland, Japan and Norway for skirting the 1986 moratorium and spells out no action after the 10-year period.

Environmentalists led a rally on Washington's National Mall to urge President Barack Obama to intervene to stop the proposal.

"The United States needs to take a page out of Japan's playbook and show a similarly serious and long-term commitment to advance its policy position -- conservation," said Patrick Ramage, director of the global whale program at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Australia has been skeptical of the proposal. In a submission to the discussion, Australia complained that whaling nations had made no serious concessions.

Japan in turn has insisted it would never give up whaling, which it considers part of its culture, despite calls on it to phase out the hunt over 10 years.

South Korea has harshly criticized the proposal as it leaves whaling in the hands of three nations. South Korea officially does not hunt whales but allows the sale of meat in whales accidentally netted -- in what environmentalists say is an easily exploitable loophole.

Whaling plan draws greens' anger
Richard Black, BBC News 22 Apr 10;

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has published draft proposals for regulating whaling for the next decade.

Japan's Antarctic whale hunt would fall in stages to less than a quarter of its current size. But hunting would continue on the endangered fin whale.

The draft is the latest stage in a two-year process aiming to find compromise between pro- and anti-whaling camps.

It will be debated at the IWC's annual meeting in June. Some conservation groups have already condemned it.

Commercial whaling was banned globally in 1982, but Iceland, Japan and Norway continue to hunt under various exemptions, collectively targeting more than 2,000 whales each year.

"If an agreement is reached, this represents a great step forward in terms of the conservation of whales and the management of whaling," said IWC chairman Cristian Maquieira.

"For the first time since the adoption of the commercial whaling moratorium, we will have strict, enforceable limits on all whaling operations.

"As a result, several thousand less whales will be killed over the period of the agreement."

Seeking sanctuary

Key countries, including the US and Japan, have limited comments to saying they will consider the draft proposal carefully.

But some conservation and animal welfare groups have already indicated opposition.

"The fact that this proposal is even being discussed shows just how far out of touch the IWC is with modern values," said Claire Bass, manager of the Marine Mammal Programme at the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

"It is entirely missing the point that blasting conscious animals with exploding harpoons is grossly inhumane."

However, others argue that the aim of completely banning whaling is unrealistic, and that a major down-scaling, combined with bringing it under international oversight, is a worthwhile compromise.

But the inclusion of fin whales and the continuation of hunting in the Southern Ocean - which has been declared a whale sanctuary - are points of concern.

"There are some positive elements here, but there are some unacceptable provisions too," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group.

"This allows whaling by Japan to continue in the Southern Ocean - and the Southern Ocean Sanctuary should be set in stone."

Quota cuts

Japan currently targets about 930 minke whales and 50 fins in each Antarctic season, though in recent years it has actually caught a lot fewer owing to skirmishes with ships of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and to a fire on the factory ship Nisshin Maru.

The draft envisages the annual Antarctic minke catch falling to 400 immediately, then to 200 in the 2015/16 season.

The fin whale quota would be set at 10 now, falling to five in 2013/4.

A demand that Japan has made regularly for several years - that it be allocated a commercial or quasi-commercial minke whale quota in the North Pacific waters around its coasts - would be granted, with 120 of the animals targeted each year.

Iceland - which last year mounted a major escalation in its fin whale hunt, catching 125 - would be allocated an annual quota of 80 fins and 80 minkes, which is considerably less than it has been demanding.

Norway's annual quota would be set at 600 minkes, and no other country would be permitted to start hunting - a clause that has aroused the ire of South Korea.

It is clear that the big players are still some way apart on key issues, including whether international trade should be permitted during the 10-year period.

Permitting it is a key demand of Iceland, which sees a potentially big export market in Japan. But conservation groups and anti-whaling nations are equally adamant that it must be stopped.

International trade in whalemeat is banned, but Iceland, Japan and Norway have registered exemptions to the UN wildlife trade convention for some whale species.

If adopted at the June IWC meeting, the "peace package" would set terms for the next 10 years, with a review after five.

Initial quotas could be amended downwards if scientific assessments indicated the necessity.

Governments would agree not to set quotas unilaterally, and to keep all hunting within the control of the IWC, effectively suspending the current measures of "scientific" whaling or hunting "under objection".

Whaling nations would have to agree to a monitoring regime involving observers on boats and a DNA register designed to keep illegal whalemeat out of the market.

Whaling by indigenous groups would not be affected.

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Once-Hidden EU Report Reveals Damage From Biodiesel

Pete Harrison, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Biofuels such as biodiesel from soy beans can create up to four times more climate-warming emissions than standard diesel or petrol, according to an EU document released under freedom of information laws.

The European Union has set itself a goal of obtaining 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources, mostly biofuels, by the end of this decade, but it is now worrying about the unintended environmental impacts.

Four major studies are under way.

Chief among those fears is that biofuel production soaks up grain from global commodity markets, forcing up food prices and encouraging farmers to clear tropical forests in the quest for new land.

Burning forests releases vast quantities of carbon dioxide and often cancels out many of the climate benefits sought from biofuels.

Biodiesel from North American soybeans has an indirect carbon footprint of 339.9 kilograms of CO2 per gigajoule -- four times higher than standard diesel -- said the EU document, an annex that was controversially stripped from a report published in December.

Editing the report caused one of the consultancies, Fraunhofer of Germany, to disown it partly in a disclaimer.

But it has now been made public after Reuters used freedom of information laws to gain a copy.

The EU's executive European Commission said it had not doctored the report to hide the evidence, but only to allow deeper analysis before publishing.

"Given the divergence of views and the level of complexity of the issue ... it was considered better to leave the contentious analysis out of the report," the Commission said in a statement. "The analysis prepared under this study applied a methodology which by many is not considered appropriate."

SCIENTIFIC NEUTRALITY

The annex adds some weight to a growing dossier suggesting biofuels are not as green as once thought -- even the more advanced, second generation biofuels made from wood chips.

"For the third time in six weeks the (European) Commission is forced to release studies about the climate effects of biofuels," said Nusa Urbancic of T&E, a campaign group for green transport.

"And for the third time these studies show that land use is the most important factor in deciding if biofuels make sense or not," Urbancic said.

Biodiesel from European rapeseed has an indirect carbon footprint of 150.3 kg of CO2 per gigajoule, while bioethanol from European sugar beet is calculated at 100.3 kg -- both much higher than conventional diesel or gasoline at around 85 kg.

By contrast, imports of bioethanol from Latin American sugar cane and palm oil from Southeast Asia get a relatively clean bill of health from the study at 82.3 kg and 73.6 kg respectively.

But one of the scientists involved with the study cautioned that much work remained to be done before the issue was properly understood, and that no firm conclusions could be drawn about the relative merits of different biofuel sources.

"The major point is that we have to do more work, develop new sustainability criteria and we have to be very careful about the origins of biofuels," said Wolfgang Eichhammer of Fraunhofer.

"We must also find a way of excluding the inefficient biofuels," he added.

Eichhammer said he had made his stand with the disclaimer to protect the neutrality of science, and emphasized the value of ongoing Commission studies into the problem.

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Indonesia's Geothermal Potential Remains Untapped

Titania Veda, Jakarta Globe 22 Apr 10;

Garut, West Java. Beneath Darajat Mountain lies the village of Sirnasari. The bread and butter of this community of 8,500 people is jacket-making and other cottage industries. But frequent blackouts, due to infrastructure problems such as decaying or falling transmission poles, cause production delays that affect these small entrepreneurs’ profit margins.

“When there’s a blackout, we really feel it because we can’t produce at work. And then we can’t pay our electricity bills and our electricity at home gets cut off,” said Tati, a housewife whose husband makes jackets.

Energy experts mockingly refer to Indonesia’s current energy woes, complete with blackouts and shortages, as the “dark ages.” The country has been beset by power outages as infrastructure has failed to keep pace with growth. The existing generating capacity is 30,500 megawatts, a power deficit of 4,555 MW, according to data released by state-owned power company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara in January. Analysts say the shortages have hurt industry and deterred investment.

Untapped Solution

With the government’s “fast-track” program to create a new power supply still in the works, the central government is increasingly touting geothermal power as a clean, renewable and environmentally friendly energy source. Located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most seismically active place on earth, Indonesia has the world’s largest geothermal energy reserves.

The fast-track program’s second phase, estimated to cost $12 billion and targeted for completion in 2014, mandates that around 4,000 MW of electricity come from geothermal power plants.

The Energy Ministry hopes to attract the needed billions from global investors at the 2010 World Geothermal Congress & Exhibition beginning on Sunday in Bali. A key geothermal event, the congress is expected to attract around 2,500 technical experts, officials and investors from 80 countries.

Geothermal energy could conceivably power the entire archipelago, but it has barely been tapped. Currently, just 1,189 MW of geothermal power are being produced in 15 plants in Java and Bali — only 4.2 percent of the country’s potential capacity. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources says the country may have enough geothermal reserves to produce up to 27,170 MW in 265 locations including Sumatra and Sulawesi.

If that’s not enough to convince decision-makers to embrace geothermal, there are additional cash benefits. Using geothermal power instead of coal-fired power plants could enable operators to sell carbon credits because the plants are low-emitters. According to Energy Ministry data, Indonesia could earn up to $477 million by 2014 in carbon credits generated from low-emission geothermal projects alone.

It remains to be seen how long it will take before Indonesia becomes a geothermal power. The village of Sirnasari, for example, lies in a valley at the foot of Darajat Mountain, some 10 kilometers below a geothermal power plant run by a local unit of US energy giant Chevron. Regardless, it has its share of power blackouts.

According to Chevron spokesman Usman Slamet, Chevron is contracted by state electricity utility PLN to supply 259 MW of power from the Darajat plant, which lies around 2,000 meters above sea level, directly to the Java-Madura-Bali electricity grid. Electricity for Sirnasari, therefore, comes via PLN and not the mountains.

‘Poisoned Steam’

Aside from the complaints from local villagers around the district of Garut about the blackouts, the central and local government faces another problem: widespread misinformation and ignorance about geothermal energy.

“People I speak to think it’s related to Lapindo,” said Erfan Hutagaol, head of the Energy Ministry’s geothermal business effort section, referring to the mudflow disaster in East Java. “And there are those who are already using geothermal for tourism purposes, such as natural hot springs. And they’re afraid the hot springs will disappear if we develop geothermal energy.”

One a recent day in Pasirwangi, a subdistrict of Garut, a local farmer named Amat was off-loading sacks of potatoes from a truck. In the distance, beyond the potato and vegetable fields, white puffs of steam from the Chevron plant rose above the mountains.

Amat, a lifelong resident of Pasirwangi, has lived in the area before and after Chevron signed its geothermal contract in 1984. Although he lives and works only about 5 kilometers from the plant, Amat admitted that he doesn’t know what geothermal is or how it works. He said he sticks to his potato and vegetable farming, although he’s been facing problems with low crop yields. Now 40 years old, he said that life as a farmer was better prior to Chevron’s arrival.

“Farmers complain that their crops get viruses from the steam,” Amat said.

Ibang Lukmanurdin, program manager for the Pasundan Peasants Union (SPP) in Garut, added, “Numerous farmers and laborers claim the land is being polluted by the steam. We have engineers who can exploit solar energy and bio-gas... so leave the [geothermal] wealth alone.”

“There is poison in the steam. You can smell it,” said Asep, 25, a farm hand in Pasirwangi, referring to the noticeable smell of sulfur in the air.

However, Ryad Chairil, an energy analyst with the Center for Indonesian Energy and Resources Law, denied that steam originating from geothermal plants, not to mention the earth, contained harmful poisons.

“The steam is derived from the bottom of the earth. If it contained poison, then the land surrounding it would be unhealthy. If the land can grow grass or rice, it means the land is basically healthy and the steam has no effect,” he said.

As for the foul smell, Chairil said, “The smell of sulfur is like a fart. It will not affect the land.”

Hadian Hendracahya, a program staffer at the Association for the Advancement of Small Businesses in Bandung (Pupuk), who does community development work in Garut district, also rejected claims that geothermal steam is making the land barren.

“Logically, it doesn’t make sense,” he said. A rice farmer himself, Hadian said the farmers weren’t considering that their lands could be yielding less due to over-cultivation or the excessive application of harmful chemical pesticides.

Greener Option

While officials from the energy minister and energy experts concede that any resource development project will have an environmental impact, they insist that environmental damage from geothermal is minimal compared to oil, gas and coal production. They also said that geothermal projects use less land: on average, a plant producing 200 Megawatts covers 37 hectares, while an open pit coal mine requires the clearing of hundreds of hectares of land.

That said, there are still environmental concerns about geothermal energy. An estimated 42 percent of Indonesia’s potential geothermal reserves are located within protected or conservation forests, the latter of which is off limits to geothermal production according to 1999 forestry law. The law does allow geothermal plants in production forests as well as protected forests.

The Ministry of Forestry is preparing a new draft law that would allow the drilling of geothermal wells in conservation forests as it seeks to boost electricity generation.

But that may only further anger local populations if they don’t understand how geothermal production works, or think it’s destroying their local environments, Hadian said. Out of the dozen farmers and villagers in Garut’s Pasirwangi and Samarang subdistricts who spoke to the Jakarta Globe, only one understood the definition of geothermal energy and its potential benefits.

“I know that geothermal is an energy that is kept inside the earth, and if managed well, it can be used for future energy,” said Rian Herdiana, a 20-year-old villager from Sirnasari who received entrepreneurial training from Chevron as part of its community development program.

PLN, the Energy Ministry and Chevron insist that they run education campaigns for the public about geothermal energy, including school visits in Garut and open tours of the plant.

“There’s always a communication gap between everyone. The local government is the one responsible for disseminating information to the villagers,” Chairil said.

But villagers don’t seem too perturbed by their lack of understanding, mostly because their main concern is their livelihoods. In fact, the main gripe that residents of Garut’s subdistricts have about the Chevron plant is that the company hires workers from outside the area.

“There has been no progress in the area because it’s very difficult to place our local people in the company. These days, the application process is difficult and you need money to bribe people to get a job there,” Amat said.

Multinational corporations such as Chevron are often accused of discriminatory hiring practices.

However, Usman countered that between 85 and 90 percent of the 400 staff at the Chevron plant is from Garut district.

That said, geothermal projects also require skilled workers and many Pasirwangi residents such as Asep don’t go beyond primary school. He said he’s been working as a farm laborer since he was 13 years old.

“The problem is each village wants a monopoly, so it’s understandable that people will say only a small section from their village work in Darajat,” Usman said.

Meanwhile, other young villagers such as Rian are pinning their hopes on geothermal giants like Chevron to help their villages progress in other ways.

“I hope Chevron can come up with the technology so there are no more increases in the basic electricity tariff and no more electrical disturbances here,” Rian said.

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