Incentives needed to improve environmental awareness

JAKARTA (JP): People residing near a reserve forest deserve incentives to improve their awareness of preservation, an environmentalist said yesterday.

"Preservation efforts should not be focused only on natural wealth but also on how to benefit the local people," said Setijati D. Sastrapradja of the Kehati Foundation.

She drew the correlation between countries which have natural resources but lack skills and technology, countries which have the knowledge but not enough resources, and local residents who are told to preserve the environment but get nothing in return.

"Eventually people will get fed up with continuously being told to preserve the environment but never receiving any incentive for their efforts," Setijati said.

She classified environmental concerns into three: natural conservation, exploitation and the sharing of benefits.

Setijati was addressing the opening session of a four-day workshop titled "Preserving Bio-diversity and Natural Parks", attended by NGO representatives, scholars, businesspeople and journalists.

"Ecotourism has become a catchword that benefits anyone but local residents," she said.

Setijati, the executive director of the Kehati Foundation, a non-governmental organization dedicated to fund environmental conservation projects, said that the concept of benefit sharing would raise people's awareness about conservation.

"NGOs should work hand in hand with the government to raise the public's environmental awareness," she said.

Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri, a professor of environmental law at University of Indonesia, suggested both the government and NGOs to be more open and cooperative with each other.

"So far, they are often suspicious of each other. The government thinks all NGOs are nasty, while NGOs think that the government is uncooperative," he said.

Koesnadi, a former secretary of the state minister of environment, noted, however, that there are always exceptions to every case, such as the existence of nasty NGOs and officials.

"The mass media could play a mediatory role by covering both sides proportionally," he said.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja is scheduled to address the workshop co-sponsored by the Antara news agency and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation today.

Participants will proceed with a field trip to the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java today. (14)