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.