Minister vows stronger action at UN meeting

Minister vows stronger action at UN meeting

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim vowed to
take a more active lead in the discussions and negotiations
during the fourth preparatory committee meeting on sustainable
development to ensure the interests of civil society and the
Group of 77 developing countries (G-77) are heard and duly noted.

Nabiel said the Chairman's Text must accommodate the interests
of developing countries, not only those of developed countries.

"I have told my staff to take stronger action, to be more
vocal in the deliberations (of the Chairman's Text)," he promised
a group of international NGOs during an informal meeting here.

Various NGOs have called on Indonesia to take the leadership
during the preparatory committee meeting, arguing that the
Chairman's Text was on the side of industrialized countries.

The Chairman's Text -- expected to be endorsed by Heads of
State in Johannesburg in August -- is a plan of action for
countries to curb the overexploitation of the earth's natural
resources and to pursue sustainable development.

In a press briefing with the media earlier in the day, Nabiel
said that taking charge during the negotiations was not an easy
job because, as a member of G-77, Indonesia must abide by the
decisions of the group led by Venezuela.

"Formally we already have a leader, that is Venezuela, and we
have to go through them. But we will be more active in the
negotiations," he said, after meeting with leaders of Greenpeace.

Greenpeace called on the Indonesian government to take
stronger leadership in the meetings, and work with sustainable
development-friendly governments from Asia, Africa and Latin
America, as well as build alliances with friendly European
countries.

"We, together with other NGOs (agree) that Indonesia has to
take strong leadership. We have two weeks left and we don't have
a lot of time to salvage what is left," said Greenpeace's
Southeast Asian campaign director Athena Ronquillo.

Greenpeace and other NGOs are mainly concerned with the
efforts of industrialized countries to leave out time-bound
measures and definite targets in the Chairman's Text.

Nabiel acknowledged there was a lot of disappointment over the
deliberation process of the Chairman's Text.

"In principle, there is no difference between our (government
of Indonesia) position and Greenpeace's, just the strategy and
how to reach what we want," he said, adding that some of the
issues that were of greatest concern to both Indonesia and
Greenpeace include conservation and the eradication of poverty.

Separately, the head of the Indonesian delegation in the
senior official meeting, Makarim Wibisono, said that member
countries of G-77 are currently looking for common ground before
presenting their views before developed countries.

"We are trying to create a coalition as broad as possible and
to involve stakeholders so that we can place pressure on other
delegations," he said.

He said there was still time to convince other delegates,
explaining that it was too early to tell where the negotiations
were heading.

"We have to wait until we're halfway through," he said. So far
however, negotiations were progressing in line with the
government's agenda, he said.

According to him, the Chairman's Statement contains all the
key issues Indonesia hopes to get other countries to agree on.

Remi Parmentier, political director of Greenpeace, said he was
encouraged to find a number of coinciding views and analysis with
Indonesia.

"We will strive to build a consensus to make sure there is
strong support for concrete targets with a timetable and new
financial resources to achieve sustainable development," he said,
adding that Greenpeace had also put forward its views with
delegations from other countries, and that Indonesia, as the host
country, should play a strong role in the meetings.

"We think that, perhaps, governments are blind, but they are
not deaf. If we speak loud and clear they will have to listen,
they will have to hear us," he said.