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