World Earth Day

World Earth Day

The international community commemorated World Earth Day on
April 22. In Jakarta, the Ministry of Forestry, in cooperation
with the Center for International Forestry (CIFOR), launched a
regreening campaign called Program Adopsi Pohon (Tree Adoption
Program) in Situgede village, Bogor, West Java. Through the
program, aimed at increasing people's awareness of the importance
of planting trees, residents were given seeds to plant.

Meanwhile, the National Consortium for Forest and Nature
Preservation (Konphalindo) launched a portal dedicated to the
environment: beritabumi.or.id. This website is supposed to
disseminate relevant information on, among other things, the
environment, media networking, and advocation and education so as
to develop respect for the environment.

On the same day, hundreds of people organized by the
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) protested outside
the Jakarta Stock Exchange to demand that the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) quit Indonesia, because, they
said, the two institutions participate in the exploitation of the
country's environment through global capitalism.

The commemoration of World Earth Day is an effort to save the
Earth by maintaining the environment for mankind and all other
living creatures.

Forest destruction, which causes flooding and landslides, is a
blatant example of environmental damage. The most recent
landslide in Cililin, Bandung, which claimed 15 lives on
Thursday, was obviously caused by deforestation.

It is inarguable that environmental damage by humans causes
other people to suffer. Forest destruction in Indonesia inflicts
a total loss of at least Rp 83 billion per day.

-- Republika, Jakarta