EU slams planned road through protected area
EU slams planned road through protected area
Simon Martin
Agence France-Presse
Aras Napal, North Sumatra
The European Union's Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom on
Tuesday ended a visit to a huge EU-funded conservation project,
expressing alarm that a planned road network could spell disaster
for it.
Work has already started on the Ladia Galaska network, which
would link the west and east coasts of Aceh in northern Sumatra
and would cut through the heart of the Leuser Ecosystem.
"If a road cuts through this protected area it would be
absolutely disastrous for the project," said Wallstrom.
The EU has spent 31 million euros (US$39.4 million) on the
conservation area since 1996 while the government has contributed
six million euros only.
Wallstrom said late Monday, during a visit to a camp in the
rainforest, that apart from damaging species the road network
would give access to illegal loggers and poachers.
"This is exactly what happened in the Amazon," she told AFP,
saying she would write to President Megawati Soekarnoputri to
express concern. "We don't want to lose what has been achieved in
protecting this unique area."
The conservation area covers 2.6 million hectares, almost the
size of Belgium. It is the habitat of Sumatran rhinos,
orangutans, tigers and elephants.
"It is one of the world's ecological wonders," said
development adviser Mike Griffiths, who helped set up the
conservation project.
"There is colossal richness and biodiversity. Roads in a
tropical rain forest are deadly," said Griffiths. He estimated
that in some areas which would be isolated from the main forest
by the planned new roads, 30 percent of species could be lost.
"We don't even need this road."
The Rp 1.5 trillion ($179 million) road project was launched
by Aceh provincial governor Abdullah Puteh, who says it will end
the isolation of remote settlements.
Conservationists have put forward alternative routes which
avoid the conservation area.
"All over Indonesia roads have traditionally been a source of
income for local governments," Griffiths told AFP. "Not just
income from the road but opportunities for forest exploitation
and ultimately conversion to plantations."
Indonesia's Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim, who met
Wallstrom Monday, said the planned road network would have
adverse ecological, social and security aspects and would be
subject to landslides.
He said a final decision on going ahead with the full network
was still awaited from the central government. "We are still
trying to convince the president (to stop the project)."
EU involvement in the Leuser project ends in November.
Wallstrom said she would keep pressing for the road network to be
scrapped.
"It will make a scar on the environment which will be terribly
difficult to heal," she said.