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)