Incentives needed to improve environmental awareness
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)