Public told to help protect environment
Public told to help protect environment
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government, private businesses and representatives of the
people signed on Thursday a memorandum to express their joint
commitment to establishing the environmental governance that may
give wider access for the public to take part in preserving the
environment.
Initiated by the Access Initiative (AI), the joint commitment
was made with regards to the people who have suffered the most
from environment deterioration where industries and businesses
failed to invite public participation in assessing their
activities' impacts to the environment.
Frances Seymour, director for institutions and governance
program at the World Resources Institute, revealed to a media
briefing after the signing ceremony here on Thursday that AI
found out that most of the emerging economy did not have a
standard procedure or policies that enable the people to monitor
the industries and the environment.
"How could the people are expected to safeguard their backyard
if the government fail to disseminate to the public the
information on the industry and how it may affect the people and
the environment?," she remarked.
The director general for forest protection at the Ministry of
Forestry, Wiyono, and Central Java's Kebumen Regent Rustriningsih
represented the government in the declaration, while
businesswoman Dewi Motik represented the Indonesian Chamber of
Commerce (Ikadin). Representing the people were Tunggul Sirait, a
member of the House of Representatives' caucus for environment
and activist Ahmad Safrudin from the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (Walhi).
The signing is only the first step in efforts to win a global
commitment from the 4th Global Ministerial-Level Preparatory
Committee Meeting for World Summit on Sustainable Development
held in Bali this week that will feature government officials,
activists, and observers from 189 countries.
The World Summit will be held in Johannesburg next September.
AI is an international coalition of observers and
environmental experts and activists with their prime concerns on
empowering the civil society to ensure responsive and acceptable
environmental policies by pushing the creation of three key
access to information, participation and justice.