The difficulties of changing a culture of corruption and exploitation are immense, but must be faced, says Frances Seymour, the director of the world-leading Centre for International Forestry Research.
Indonesia’s massive forests and peatlands make it the place to begin to address deforestation. "If you agree with Al Gore that we are in a climate emergency and you have to do everything you can about it, then forests have to be part of the answer," Seymour says.
Forest Day" atau "Hari Hutan" akan memeriahkan Konferensi Internasional Perubahan Iklim yang berlangsung 3-14 Desember di Bali, dengan mengambil hari khusus, Sabtu 8 Desember 2007. "Peminatnya sudah sangat banyak," kata Koordinator Tropical Forest and Climate Change untuk Asia Tenggara CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research), Dr Heru Santoso di Bandung, Kamis.
A figure from the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research puts deforestation at around 25 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions. Avoiding emissions from deforestation has so far been left out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which focuses instead on reducing emissions from sources such as industry and transport. Widespread deforestation has made Indonesia the third largest emitter of carbon in the world, the contribution coming most dramatically in the form of near-annual forest fires on islands such as Sumatra and Borneo.
Swathes of peatland are being cleared to make way for pulp and paper plantations, and the booming palm oil industry. But Indonesia is slowly waking up to the hidden cost of releasing the huge stores of carbon kept in peatland, said Daniel Mudiyarso, an expert at Indonesia’s Centre for International Forestry Research. "We used to hear the term ‘marginal land’ for this kind of ecosystem, but our awareness (of its importance) is increasing," Mudiyarso said.
Conversion of forests and peatlands for agriculture in Indonesia has generated little economic benefit while releasing substantial amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, reports a new study from the the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and their Indonesian partners. The study, which looked at carbon emissions and land use changes in three Indonesian provinces covering 16 percent of the country, calculated the economic benefits derived from different types of land use, including oil palm, rubber, coffee and mixed agroforestry.
Tiga perempat atau 75-80 persen bencana alam di bumi merupakan bencana yang terkait dengan iklim, seperti banjir, badai, penyakit, kekeringan, hingga longsor, kata Peneliti Senior pada Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) Daniel Mudiyarso. "Dari grafik jumlah bencana alam yang tercatat sejak 1900 hingga 2003, bencana yang bersifat `hydro-meteorological` melonjak tajam pada dekade terakhir, jauh dibanding bencana biological yang naik namun sedikit atau bencana geological yang konstan," kata Daniel di depan lebih dari 600 ilmuwan yang menghadiri Kongres Ilmu Pengetahuan (Kipnas) IX di Jakarta, Rabu.
Environmental groups urged the government Tuesday to stop issuing concessions for mining companies at protected forests, to avoid further forest conversions. Separately in Bogor, researchers from the World Agroforestry Center, the Center for International Forestry Research and their Indonesian partners reported the conversion of forests and peatlands had generated very little profit, despite the huge amount of emitted carbon.
"We’re in a canoe heading for the waterfall," Frances Seymour, director-general of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said. "Current rates of deforestation, whether it is here in Indonesia or anywhere else in the world, are unsustainable and need to be slowed." During the Bali conference, participants will hear a report on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation (RED) — a new scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forest areas eligible for global carbon trading.
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