Agenda 21's current state criticized

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) criticized the government's Agenda 21 yesterday for being too narrow in scope and vision, and warned that the document, in its current state, would receive little public support.

"Agenda 21 is not solely about environmental matters, but about development. It's a matter of how to sustain development while preserving the environment," Walhi executive director Emmy Hafild said.

"This is lacking in the Agenda," Emmy said.

Agenda 21 Indonesia, unveiled by the State Minister of Environment's office and the United Nations Development Program's Jakarta office in March, has been touted as the government's blueprint on sustainable development.

The term Agenda 21 was coined at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 1992. A meeting is planned in New York this month to see how much the world has progressed since then.

Emmy said the Indonesian agenda dealt more with present issues instead of the challenges facing the country in the 21st century.

The agenda has 16 chapters divided into four sections -- on public service, waste management, soil resources management and natural resources management.

"This makes it difficult to incorporate environmental issues into all development sectors. By focusing solely on environmental problems, the Agenda 21 becomes merely a working agenda for the Office of the State Minister of Environment," Emmy said.

As an example of its shortcomings, Emmy cited the absence of any reference to mining, which she described as one of the country's most important economic sectors and the most destructive and hazardous to the environment.

"Agenda 21 failed to touch on how Indonesia would cope with environmental problems that are bound to develop given that the government has awarded more than 200 mining contracts in the past few years," she said.

"What will happen to those mining areas in 30 years from now, how will we cope with that, how will we rehabilitate them, where will we get the money to do all that?

"These questions were not touched on at all," Emmy said.

The agenda should deal with how Indonesia would cope 50 years from now when it no longer benefited as much from its huge forestry resources, she said.

"We must sit with the Ministry of Forestry officials and discuss the problems, and then incorporate it into the agenda," she said.

Emmy doubted whether the agenda, as it now stands, would ever make it into the 1998-2003 Guidelines of State Policies as the government had hoped.

The agenda's success depended on implementation which meant that commitment from all concerned would be crucial, she said.

She said this meant that the various stockholders had to have been involved in the preparation and drafting of the agenda.

She referred to the Philippines, where the Agenda 21 was prepared by a council involving community leaders, non- governmental organizations and the government.

She said Indonesia should form a similar council "so that everybody will be committed to the agenda".

Emmy said that the government's Agenda 21 could still be used as an initial draft for discussion. (aan)