A seminar to look for measures to harmonise ecological preservation and development in Vietnam was held at the Cat Tien National Park in southern Dong Nai Province on September 19. The experts will pool their experience and initiatives in order to find out effective measures to drive back poverty and minimise threats to the country’s ecosystem. The seminar was organised by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) with financial support from the MacArthur Foundation.

Criticisms of the project surfaced several years ago, with the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) saying Unifiber did not have a detailed plan to support its claim that the mill would not use natural forests.

* Similar version of the article also published in The Australian under title “Greens target Asian hedge fund.”

Balai TNK dan Cifor, lembaga penilitian kehutanan, punya spekulasi bahwa motif di balik perambahan tidak jauh dari alasan ekonomi. Yang klasik ialah masyarakat miskin ingin hidup sejahtera sehingga menebangi kayu untuk dijual. Godwin Limberg, peneliti Cifor, berspekulasi bahwa perambahan adalah bagian skenario besar melenyapkan TNK. Para perambah akan menguasai lahan TNK sehingga Departemen Kehutanan terpaksa enclave. Namun, kawasan enclave nantinya akan dibeli oleh pengusaha batu bara.

Indonesia will bring a seven- point agenda for discussion at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) it will host in December this year, a spokesman said on Monday. The seven-point agenda deals with adaptation, mitigation, clean development mechanism (CDM), financial mechanism, technology and capacity building, reduced deforestation and post-Kyoto protocol, said Daniel Murdiyarso, the editor of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The time had come for policy makers to pay attention to the problems of adaptation to climate change that had happened to their respective citizens, he said.

* Similar version of the article also published in People’s Daily Online and LKBN Antara wire agency

Ketua komunitas B2W Ramadaniyah Diawan mengatakan, soal rencana pembangunan jalur khusus sepeda, komunitasnya sudah menyampaikan gagasan tersebut kepada Wali Kota dan mendapat tanggapan positif.

Namun, sebelum jalur khusus sepeda dibangun, menurut dia, maka infrastruktur ruas jalan raya yang ada harus diperbaiki lebih dulu, misalnya pembangunan underpass di Jalan Raya Soleh Iskandar dan pembangunan jalan tol Bogor Ring Road (BRR).

This week we take a first-hand look at the state of the Indonesian media. The country has experienced some remarkable liberalisation over the last ten years, but what’s that meant for Indonesia’s media sector? Greg Clough, a Communications specialist from CIFOR joined the discussion.

Laporan Bank Dunia 2007 menyebutkan Indonesia sebagai negara penyumbang karbon dioksida (C02) ketiga di dunia akibat pembukaan hutan dengan cara dibakar dan pembalakan liar (illegal logging). ”Dengan situasi seperti ini, pertemuan di Bali akan sangat penting artinya dalam menghasilkan mandat yang akan memandu Protokol Kyoto untuk melajukan pengurangan emisi C02 dari deforestasi,” kata peneliti senior Pusat Riset Kehutanan Internasional (Center for International Forestry Research/CIFOR) Daniel Murdiyaso di Jakarta, Rabu (2/4).

Deforestasi, lanjut dia, merupakan persoalan terbesar yang harus diatasi Indonesia dalam penurunan emisi gas rumah kaca. Data Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup 1998 menyebutkan, dari total 800 juta ton emisi gas rumah kaca yang dihasilkan Indonesia selama 1992-1997 sekitar 75% di antaranya didominasi alih fungsi lahan. Sisanya, dengan angka yang kurang signifikan, dihasilkan oleh penggunaan energi dan aktivitas industri.

Luther Tare is an unlikely forest saviour. Slightly built, with a slender face and wispy beard, black hair neatly cropped, he wears a brightly patterned, short-sleeved shirt. Yet, in a land where loggers have done almost as they pleased, Tare has shown a steely resolve in safeguarding a patch of rainforest. ”All human needs are met by nature,” his parents told Tare when growing up in a Dayak village in northeast Kalimantan. ”We depend on forests.’