Govt gears up for biodiversity NGO meeting

Govt gears up for biodiversity NGO meeting

JAKARTA (JP): The government intends to be careful not to
leave a bad impression with foreign environmental conservation
groups participating in the Global Biodiversity Forum here next
month.

Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja told a meeting
with chief editors and reporters held at the information ministry
yesterday that the government would be a good host to the 100
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) scheduled to participate in
the meeting.

However, the government will also be firm with what Sarwono
described as "naughty NGOs", which stray from the conference
agenda by, for example, holding protests.

Participants in the forum will also have to follow the
procedures for international gatherings set down by the United
Nations, the minister added. "We cannot tackle the NGOs in the
way we face local organizations," he said.

"In line with the tradition of the UN, organizations who want
to take part must do so as participants and must do so according
to the UN procedures," Sarwono said.

The Global Biodiversity Forum will be held on Nov. 4 and Nov.
5. The meeting is being held in the run-up to the inter-
governmental Second Conference of Parties to the Convention on
Biodiversity, which will be held, also in Jakarta, from Nov. 6
until Nov. 17.

The Forum, which is an open meeting, is being organized by the
Kehati Foundation and the International Union for Conservation of
Nature. Both the Forum and the official Conference are follow-ups
to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which
produced the Convention.

The theme of both meetings is "Biodiversity for Equal Welfare
of All People".

Sarwono said Indonesia had learned a lesson from the
experiences of Egypt and China, which earned unfavorable
international images as a result of their approach to NGOs
holding UN conferences in their countries on population and women
respectively.

Registrants to last month's World Conference on Women in
Beijing, for instance, complained of being moved to a site hours
away from the inter-governmental conference and of harassment.
Many could not acquire accreditation to attend the parallel NGO
forum.

Sarwono urged the attendance of "everyone interested in
preserving our biodiversity" at the conferences.

He said the conferences might see conflicts between some
participants, but added that Indonesia is lucky, in that
international NGOs "are on our side" in facing advanced
countries, such as the United States, which seek, for instance,
to secure patent rights over traditional knowledge about
resources.

He said Indonesian people are not "stingy" with their
traditional knowledge of, for instance, the archipelago's plants
and other natural resources.

"When foreigners come and ask for information, we give it to
them," he said, adding that generosity often harms Indonesia's
own interests because foreigners then conduct scientific research
on the plants, seek patent rights over them, and reap the
benefits.

Sarwono said Indonesia is hoping that in future there will be
a more equal sharing of benefits derived from traditional know-
how.

The U.S. has not ratified the Convention, which contains a
reference to the "desirability of sharing equitably benefits
arising from the use of traditional knowledge, innovations and
practices."

Sarwono said it was to be hoped that the international talks
on biodiversity would settle the sharp differences of opinion
underlying the U.S.' failure to ratify the Convention.

Ignorance about Indonesia's rich flora and fauna is still
widespread, Sarwono said, even among officials and NGOs concerned
with the environment. (anr)