Greenpeace: govt`s initiative on climate change inadequate

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Greenpeace considers the Indonesian government`s initiative in addressing climate change inadequate, a spokesman said.

"While the Indonesian delegation to the climate change meeting held in Bonn (Germany) last week was mostly keeping quiet, forest fires in the country were increasing, causing the release of millions of toms of CO2 to the atmosphere and destroying habitats of rare species such as orangutans and Sumatran tigers, and local communities conflict with companies over land," Bustar Maitar, a campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said here Monday.

He said there were hot spots and violence against local people in forest areas managed by companies which have received conversion permits from the forestry minister in Riau Province.

"Last April, Greenpeace visited the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to call for an investigation into the forest concessionary license issuances," Bustas Maitar said.

Forest fires were part of the wild cycle of climate change, according to him. Forest fires could worsen the climate change because they released carbon to the atmosphere, he said. It would be worse if later forest fires would become a normal thing in the climate change process, he added.

Deforestation was one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emission in Indonesia, which was also one of the highest gas emitters in the world, he said.

The Indonesian law bans land opening by setting fires, but NASA has recorded a total of 2,643 hot spots in Riau this year.

"Many hot spots are originating illegal forest opening processes for oil palm plantations and pulp and paper companies," he said.

Greenpeace early June activated a loud alarm outside the UN climate talks in Bonn, calling for emergency action on climate change. Locked onto the back of a truck, activists set off the siren in an attempt to wake up governments who are sleepwalking their way into catastrophic climate change instead of making progress toward a strong climate agreement to be concluded in Copenhagen in December. (*)
source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/view/?i=1245068103&c=ENV&s=