Emil warns of impact from environmental damage

Emil warns of impact from environmental damage

JAKARTA (JP): The rolling out of regional autonomy in January
next year could lead to widespread environmental damage due to
local governments' lack of vision and concern on biodiversity
management, an expert warned on Friday.

"Most local administration leaders, from governors to regents,
are busy thinking of exploiting their regions and environment by
altering rather than preserving it," chairman of Indonesia's
Biodiversity (Kehati) Foundation Emil Salim said at a media
briefing about the Kehati Awards on Friday.

Emil, a noted economist who has also served as minister of the
environment for three consecutive terms in the Soeharto era, said
the danger lies in the fact that biodiversity is not positioned
as a central plank of the country's development.

"Most regions (in the autonomy era) will be busy garnering
local revenue. In West Kalimantan, there is a regent who does not
want to preserve 75 percent of its forests as he says 'he'll get
nothing'.

"The local leaders always think that 'development' means
having a great mall or industrial estate. This is a mistaken and
dangerous concept," Emil said.

Most parts of the national parks in the country's western
region, such as Gunung Leuser and Kerinci in Sumatra, are already
damaged, he said. "In Java, the conditions are the worst."

In an effort to cope with these problems, Kehati and the West
Java administration, along with local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), have established a holistic biodiversity
board that will issue guidelines for environmentally friendly
development programs to regency and mayoralty administrations.

The board is a pilot project designed to coincide with the
implementation of regional autonomy, he said.

"We'll start with the conservation of Ciremai mountain, whose
rivers have the shortest distance to flow to the sea. The
mountain's resources have been so severely exploited as to lead
to the destruction of mangrove forests on the coast and along its
rivers," he said.

The board will meet in November and discuss concrete problems
such as the river sedimentation that affects three regencies in
West Java, namely Ciamis, Kuningan and Cirebon.

"We have no choice but to directly approach the regions and
open their minds so as to conserve nature," he said.

From the era of Soeharto, through that of Habibie right up to
the present administration of Abdurrahman (President Abdurrahman
Wahid), they all had their own excuses for not paying more
attention to the environment, he said.

"It is shameful that this country is home to the world's
greatest biodiversity but that we don't have the brains to
utilize it. My dream is that we can survive globalization through
availing of our own natural resources," he said.

Emil cited the example of how marginalized tribes such as the
Baduy in West Java and the Kubu people in Jambi (in Sumatra) must
struggle to survive and defend their forests.

"We even have sharks in the open sea in Sikka regency, East
Nusa Tenggara, that have oil in their livers that can be used as
an anti-aging or rejuvenation agent. People were unaware of this
and never used it as an economic resource," Emil said.

As part of its environmental campaign and the effort to
heighten public awareness, Kehati will present its second "Kehati
Awards" which will be given in five categories, namely
individuals, officials, companies, researchers (groups or
individuals) and journalists for their outstanding contributions
to saving the environment.

The public is welcome to submit the names of prospective
candidates for these most prestigious biodiversity awards at the
Patra Jasa Building on Jl. Gatot Subroto No. 32-34, Tel. (021)
522-8031/32.

The deadline is Dec. 1, 2000 and the award will be presented
in January next year. A special jury and assessment team will
select the candidates. The selectors include senior journalist
Atmakusumah Astraatmadja and management specialist Anugerah
Pekerti.

This year's winner was Tumenggung Tarib, chief of the Kubu
people in Jambi who, together with his tribe, has been fighting
against forest exploitation in Jambi. He received a Rp 40 million
(US$4,705) grant, which will be used by the tribe to purchase
rubber tree plants to help build a "bastion" for his people
against timber looters. (edt)