Action needed to implement WSSD

JAKARTA: Experts said on Friday the results of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) would remain mere words on paper if no concrete action was taken at home.

Noted environmentalist Emil Salim urged the relevant ministers to draw up action plans to implement the recommendations of the WSSD, and to stick to them.

"At least five sectors must start sitting down together to prepare action plans, namely the water, health, energy, agriculture and biodiversity sectors," he said.

"Don't talk so much, just do it."

Mas Achmad Santosa of the Indonesian Center for Environment Law (ICEL) agreed with Emil, and slammed ill-conceived policies that neglected the environment.

"We can see how other ministries want to revise Law No. 41/1999 on forestry so as to permit mining in protected forests, and how the Jakarta administration wants its coastal reclamation project to continue despite the decision of the State Minister for the Environment to prohibit it," he said. -- JP