Negara Berkembang Desak Negara Maju Kurangi Emisi

Sumber : Tempo – 29 November 2011

Delegasi negara berkembang meminta komitmen yang tegas dari negara maju untuk ikut mengurangi emisi gas karbon di dunia dalam konferensi perubahan iklim di Durban, Afrika Selatan, yang dimulai pada Senin, 28 November 2011. Saat ini jumlah gas karbon di dunia telah meningkat pesat 40 persen dibandingkan tahun 1990-an. “Harus ada kepastian negara maju ikut berupaya mengurangi emisi gas secara terukur,” kata Wei Su, wakil kepala delegasi Cina.

Su menyatakan pendapatnya atas nama negara berkembang, yaitu Cina, Brasil, Afrika Selatan, dan India yang kini sedang mati-matian mengatasi perubahan iklim. Dalam kesepakatan tahun 1997, perlu 35 negara industri yang berkomitmen memangkas emisi karbon sampai 5 persen hingga 2012. Tapi komitmen itu akan berakhir tahun depan, sehingga perlu diperbarui dengan komitmen lanjutan. “Protokol Kyoto adalah landasan dari rezim iklim dan periode kedua penting bagi kesuksesan konferensi ini,” ujar Su.

Amerika Serikat (AS) merupakan pencemar terbesar di dunia per kapita dan mengatakan tidak akan mendaftar untuk Protokol Kyoto yang diperbarui. AS ingin memaksakan pakta kewajiban kepada negara-negara berkembang seperti Cina dan India. Jepang, Kanada, dan Rusia–tiga negara kunci dalam kesepakatan Kyoto–menyatakan dengan jelas tidak akan mendaftar pada periode komitmen kedua. Sedangkan Eropa mengatakan dapat menerima kelanjutan Protokol Kyoto dan menunjukkan mereka serius tentang pengurangan besar dalam tahun-tahun mendatang.

Mengacu pada perbedaan, Su menegaskan dukungan untuk bekerja menuju perspektif ambisius dan adil, memastikan implementasi penuh, efektif, dan berkelanjutan pada konferensi ini dan Protokol Kyoto.

“Kami kembali mengingatkan yang hampir tidak dibayangkan bahwa sebuah negara akan meninggalkan Protokol Kyoto untuk melakukan lebih. Sebagai pihak yang bekerja di bawah mandat Bali Roadmap untuk menyepakati periode komitmen kedua di bawah Protokol Kyoto dan untuk mengaktifkan penuh,” katanya.

Dengan begitu, pelaksanaan yang efektif dan berkelanjutan dari konvensi melalui aksi jangka-panjang koperasi, sekarang, hingga dan setelah 2012, Su menegaskan kembali perlunya fokus pada mandat ini. Dia menekankan bahwa kelanjutan mekanisme fleksibilitas dari Protokol Kyoto bergantung pada pembentukan komitmen pengurangan emisi oleh negara maju diukur berdasarkan komitmen kedua.

Ketua Wahana Lingkungan Hidup (Walhi) Berry Nahdian Forya mengatakan Indonesia juga akan memperjuangkan hal yang sama dengan yang disuarakan Cina. Indonesia mendesak negara maju ikut berkomitmen dalam pengurangan emisi karbon. “Selama ini negara maju hanya memberikan bantuan kepada negara berkembang,” katanya. Walhi telah mengirimkan satu orang delegasi mengikuti konferensi itu. Lebih jauh ia mengatakan bantuan itu lebih banyak merupakan bagian dari pinjaman.

Berry juga mendesak agar Indonesia dalam konferensi itu tidak hanya mencari bantuan asing. Seharusnya, kata dia, Indonesia lebih mengarahkan pada upaya kegiatan adaptasi ketimbang mitigasi yang selama ini dilakukan. “Indonesia merupakan negara yang terkena dampak. Jadi harus yang sifatnya adaptasi,” ujarnya.

Protokol Tokyo pun harus dilanjutkan. Ia mengatakan negara maju belum bisa memenuhi kewajiban mengurangi emisi 5,2 persen yang selama ini belum berjalan. “Mekanismenya harus diperbaiki,” ujarnya.

XINHUA | EKO ARI

Link : http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2011/11/29/118368932/Negara-Berkembang-Desak-Negara-Maju-Kurangi-Emisi

Climate Change the Asean Way

Source : Eco Business – November 29, 2011
By Zelda Soriano

From November 28 to December 10, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will bring representatives of the world’s governments, international organisations, and civil society together in Durban, South Africa. The conference will seek to advance the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan agreed at UNFCCC Conference of Parties in 2007 and the 2010 Cancun Agreements.

The two most important and contentious aspects in Durban will be developed countries’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under a legally binding agreement, and the mobilisation of resources to fund climate change programs and projects in developing countries.

The outcome of the Durban conference is important for us Southeast Asians because our region does not have sufficient capacity to cope with the increasing effects and severity of climate change. The impacts also have far reaching social and economic consequences affecting health, agriculture, security, and economy, aside from inflicting further suffering on the region’s poor. The recent and ongoing floods in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar illustrate this very clearly. Said to be caused by an unusual monsoon season, the floods have killed hundreds and affected more than 10 million people in Thailand alone. Floods have also damaged rice supply and manufacturing, costing Asean economies billions of dollars.

A 2009 study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), suggests that on average Southeast Asia “is likely to suffer more from climate change than the rest of the world, if no action is taken,” entailing huge economic costs. More recently, a Climate Change Vulnerability Index released by risk advisory firm Maplecroft has identified five Asean member countries – Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia – to be at extreme risk from climate change due to extreme weather.

Only last week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a summary of its Special Report on climate impacts and disaster risk management. The new report confirms that climate change is fuelling extreme weather and escalating the human and economic costs, which are increasingly being borne by the developing world. Asean nations must face this growing challenge year after year.

When Indonesia became Asean chair in January this year, it gave Asean citizens hope for action against climate change with a public plea to the other nine member-governments to have one voice in Durban. Indonesia wants Asean countries to call for wealthy nations to slash emissions according to defined targets. It was also reported that Indonesia will propose a joint Asean statement to push for the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol on emissions reductions after 2012. The emissions cut targets of wealthy nations, said Indonesia, should no longer be as pledged, and the reductions must be based on 1990 levels, not 2005 figures.

One month before Indonesia’s 2011 Asean chair term ends it led the regional inter-governmental association in a new agreement called the Bali Concord III, which is as remarkable as its parts I and II. Bali Concords I and II laid down the context for a rule-based cooperation to address a problem that affects the entire region; an example of which is climate change. Bali Concorde III is a climate change action plan, including capacity building to address adaptation, commitment to strengthen the Kyoto Protocol, and finally, to promote the transfer and funding of climate-friendly technologies.

Indonesia’s call for one Asean voice in Durban and the recent Asean Summit agreement on Bali Concord III for Asean to push for a legally binding agreement on climate change, are clear steps forward. A fair, ambitious and legally binding international agreement is what Southeast Asia and the whole planet needs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and avert the worst impacts of climate change.

While Indonesia’s chairmanship has clearly pushed the climate issue higher up Asean’s agenda, The Bali Concorde III could fail like the 1985 Asean Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which was never ratified or implemented – a classic example of the Asean way of agreeing, and only agreeing.

Prudence though tells us that the reason behind the Asean reasons is lack of political will. If there is a will, as the saying goes, there is a way.

A way to have an Asean voice in the UNFCCC is for Asean leaders to give mandate to the each of their national delegations to act together in Durban and speak for and on behalf of Asean on the positions laid down in Bali Concord III.

If there is no mandate, there will be no Asean voice. If this is so, Indonesia’s climate leadership will have been for nothing and the Bali Concord III will be another 1985 conservation agreement.

Asean will consign its people’s to further untold suffering if Bali Concord III becomes another matter that was once agreed in Asean but then archived.

Zelda DT Soriano is the Southeast Asia Political Advisor for Greenpeace.

Link : http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/climate-change-the-asean-way/

14 Titik Jadi Sasaran Gerakan Tanam Sejuta Pohon

Sumber : Sindikasi – 28 November 2011

GubernurKaltim Awang Faroek didampingi Bupati Kukar Rita Widyasari menghadiri acara penanaman pohon di Desa Loa Lepu samping SMK 3 Tenggarong Seberang diikuti 1000 undangan berlangsung pukul 07.00 Wita, Senin (28/11).

Acara ini dalam memeringati Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia dan Bulan Menanam Nasional 2011.

Setelah menanam pohon gubernur menuju kompleks Stadion GOR Aji Imbut Tenggarong Seberang guna mendengarkan pidato Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) dalam memeringati Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia langsung dari komplek Indonesia Peace and Security Center Bukit Merah Putih Sentul Jawa Barat melalui teleconference.

Pada kesempatan itu gubernur melaporkan ke SBY terkait kegiatan akan dilakukannya dalam melestarikan hutan dengan misi 1 miliar pohon di Indonesia.

Dalam sambutannya Presiden SBY mengatakan Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia bertujuan menanam satu miliar setiap tahun merupakan gerakan sangat penting. Karena itu presiden dan Wapres Boediono hadir dalam acara itu.

“Berarti gerakan tanam 1 miliar pohon adalah gerakan sangat penting,” katanya.

Dalam laporannya gubernur mengatakan ada 14 titik lahan di Kaltim akan menjadi sasaran gerakan menanam sejuta pohon sebagian besar perbukitan gundul akibat aksi penebangan liar.

Presiden juga mengingatkan agar jangan menjadi penadah kayu ilegal dari Kaltim “Illegal logging masih sering terjadi. Saya mengimbai kepada negara tetangga jangan menjadi negara penadah kayu ilegal jika ingin mendukung menurunkan gas emisi,” ujarnya.

Indonesia bertekad menurunkan emisi gas rumah kaca sebesar 26 persen dengan upaya sendiri dan 41 persen dengan dukungan internasional pada 2020.

Berau Tanam Serentak

Dalam menyukseskan program pemerintah untuk penanaman 1 miliar pohon tahun ini Pemkab Berau dikoordinir Dinas Kehutanan menggelar penanaman pohon serentak bersama unsur Muspida, DPRD serta berbagai komponen masyarakat di antaranya di sekitar di Lapangan Sepakbola Sambaliung Jalan Raja Alam, Senin.

Kegiatan ini sekaligus menyukseskan program pemerintah penanaman pohon setiap tahun bisa terus di tingkatkan bertujuan turut menurunkan emisi karbon rumah kaca bagi keselamatan dunia.

“Penanaman satu miliar pohon saat ini merupakan instruksi presiden Nomor 28 tentang Penanaman Pohon. Ini ditujukan pemerintah guna mengurangi emisi karbon secara global saat ini. Dengan demikian bukan pemerintah saja melaksankan penanaman namun diharapkan semua kalangan baik masyarakat maupun perusahaan bisa berpartisipasi,” ungkap Bupati Berau Makmur HAPK disela kegiatan penanaman 1 miliar pohon.

Apabila tercapai dengan baik maka Berau ke depan akan memiliki lingkungan hidup nyaman dan aman serta terhindar dari kemungkinan terjadinya bencana alam seperti banjir.

“Karena itu mari semua elemen bisa bersatu dan berpartisipasi dalam kegiatan menanam 1 miliar pohon ini. Ada beberapa keinginan pemerintah pusat yakni menambah lahan penanaman agar bisa terhindar banjir serta mendukung pembangunan tanaman pangan di setiap daerah. Khusus di Berau menurutnya sampai saat ini seluruh kalangan melakukan hal terbaik guna menjaga lingkungan agar tak mengalami kerusakan,” tambah Makmur.

Kepala Dinas Kehutanan Berau Darwis menjelaskan dari tema diambil pada program pemerintah ini ditarget mampu bisa menurunkan emisi gas rumah kaca sebesar 26 persen. Mencapai target yang ada seperti halnya daerah lain di seluruh Indonesia yang harus menanam pohon sebanyak mungkin maka Berau juga melakukan hal sama.

Setiap kecamatan melakukan penanaman sampai ke wilayah perkampungan diharapkan ada penghijauan guna menjaga kelestarian hutan terutama hutan lindung.

”Kita saat ini tak saja melakukan penghijauan di hutan taip juga berkomitmen menjaga hutan lindung agar tetap hijau. Kita berkeinginan agar Berau menjadi salah satu kabupaten di Kalimantan selalu menjaga keaslian hutanya,” ucap Darwis.[mor]

Link : http://sindikasi.inilah.com/read/detail/1801638/14-titik-jadi-sasaran-gerakan-tanam-sejuta-pohon

Presiden SBY Peringatkan Dunia Internasional Waspadai Sindikat Penjual Kayu Ilegal

Sumber : VOA – 28 November 2011
Oleh Wella Sherlita

Hutan Indonesia adalah salah satu wilayah yang menjadi paru-paru dunia. Beragam program nasional dan regional dibentuk untuk melindungi kawasan hutan Indonesia; khususnya di Kalimantan, antara lain “Heart of Borneo” yang bekerjasama dengan pemerintah Malaysia dan Brunei Darussalam, serta kerjasama untuk memerangi asap akibat kebakaran hutan.

Namun demikian, masalah penebangan liar semakin tidak terhindari di Kalimantan. Untuk itu, Presiden Yudhoyono meminta pengertian negara-negara pengimpor kayu untuk mendukung pemerintah Indonesia menghentikan laju kerusakan hutan dan penyelundupan kayu dari hutan Kalimantan.

Permintaan ini disampaikan Presiden pada acara “Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia” dan “Bulan Menanam Nasional” tahun 2011, yang diadakan di Bukit Merah Putih, Indonesia Peace and Security Centre, Sentul, Bogor, Jawa Barat, Senin siang.

Presiden Yudhoyono mengatakan, “Saya senang dunia mendukung Indonesia untuk betul-betul memelihara hutan Kalimantan. Terimakasih. Tapi ada juga unsur-unsur di dunia, sindikat-sindikat yang melakukan kongkalingkong (bekerjasama dengan cara-cara dan untuk tujuan yang tidak baik) melakukan illegal logging (penebangan liar). Jadi, saya juga meminta pengertian negara-negara lain pun punya tanggungjawab yang sama, jangan jadi tukang tadah dari illegal logging yang terjadi di Indonesia.”

Duta Besar Kerajaan Norwegia untuk Indonesia, Eivind S. Homme, kepada VOA mengatakan pernyataan Presiden SBY sesuatu yang alamiah, namun tetap penting diperhatikan negara-negara pengimpor kayu Indonesia.

“Saya kira itu pernyataan yang alamiah untuk menegaskan pentingnya menjaga hutan Indonesia seperti yang ia sebutkan sebagai paru-paru dunia, dan pernyataan ini juha jelas ada kaitannya dengan penebangan liar. Saya senang diundang Presiden datang pada acara menanam pohon hari ini, “ kata Duta Besar Norwegia Eivind Homme.

Awal tahun ini, Norwegia telah berkomitmen untuk memberikan hibah sebesar 1 Miliar Dolar Amerika, untuk proyek percontohan pengurangan emisi hutan (REDD, Reducing Emission from Degradation and Deforestation) di Kalimantan Tengah.

Kasus penebangan liar serta mafia penyelundup kayu di Indonesia sempat pula dilontarkan oleh aktivis lingkungan asal Inggris, Faith Doherty. Ia menilai, pemerintah Indonesia belum tuntas menangani korupsi pada sektor kehutanan sejak reformasi.

Dirjen Bina Produksi Kehutanan dari Kementerian Kehutanan, Iman Santoso, kepada VOA mengakui ada banyak hal di lapangan yang sering tidak terpantau dari Jakarta.

Iman Santoso mengatakan, “(Memang) masih terjadi pembiaran dan tentunya pembiaran itu ada orang yang diuntungkan, toh? Yang jelas di lapangan memang sulit, artinya dengan sistem yang ada dengan kemampuan fisik dan finansial yang ada sangat susah bagi kita untuk mengontrol semua itu. Mereka (pencuri dan penyelundup kayu) bekerja dengan cara-cara yang sangat canggih dan alat-alat yang jauh lebih baik daripada alat-alat kita sendiri, orang-orangnya bisa bergantian sementara petugas kita (polisi hutan) segitu-gitu saja…”

Iman Santoso menambahkan, penegakan hukum harus diimbangi dengan keuangan yang cukup, sehingga para petugas yang menangani berbagai kejahatan di hutan dapat melaksanakan tugasnya dengan baik.

Link : http://www.voanews.com/indonesian/news/Presiden-SBY-Peringatkan-Dunia-Internasional-Waspadai-Sindikat-Penjual-Kayu-Ilegal-134590393.html

Durban Conference, Committing to the Commitment

Source : Jakarta Post – November 28, 2011
By Warief Djajanto Basorie

The United Nations climate conference in Durban, South Africa, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 will be another attempt to achieve what the annual meeting failed to accomplish in Copenhagen in 2009: A legally binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The first commitment period of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which binds only developed nations to reduce emissions, expires at the end of 2012. A more comprehensive pact was the goal in Copenhagen, but the divide between developed and developing countries has not yet been bridged. That was still the case at the 2010 conference in Cancun, Mexico, and will remain so in Durban unless a quantum leap occurs.

The developed nations want developing nations to enter a legally binding accord in a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The developing nations insist that they should be allowed to make their own cuts voluntarily.

Their argument is that the bulk of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are a result of the extensive use of fossil-based fuels (coal, oil and gas) by economically advanced nations since the Industrial Revolution. Thus the burden of emissions reduction should fall on developed nations, the developing countries say. The United States and European Union nations were responsible for 54 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from 1900 to 2007, writes Kelly Rigg, the chief of Tck Tck Tck, a coalition of 200 NGOs pushing for a global climate deal.

Although the US, the world’s biggest emitter, did not sign up in Kyoto, the protocol does work. It is on track to achieve an emissions reduction of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. This represents a 29 percent reduction of emissions levels that would be expected without the protocol.

But this progress can be undone if the Kyoto Protocol is allowed to lapse with no clear replacement for a legally binding accord. All nations involved in the conference say they are committed to finding a climate solution, but arriving at such a long-term, common solution is indeed difficult.

Indonesia wants developed nations, particularly the United States, to sign up for a second commitment period. “We want to appeal to their noble senses,” Rachmat Witoelar, the Indonesian President’s special envoy for climate change told a pre-Durban roundtable with journalists. The Obama administration is not the obstacle. It’s the US Congress that is influenced by fossil-fuel-related interests that object to carbon emission reductions. Get the United States to make a statement of commitment and an agreement can be reached in the conference after Durban, Witoelar implored.

While Indonesia does not want to sign a legally binding accord, it has taken the lead in volunteering unilateral cuts. It wants the Durban conference to move on the Bali Roadmap as an ongoing process, the executive chair of the National Council on Climate Change says. The roadmap is an accord that was reached at the 2007 climate conference in Bali, to resolve differences between developed and developing nations.

It has two negotiating tracks. One is to discuss long-term post-2012 issues. The second track is resolving commitments to the Kyoto Protocol. Negotiations on both tracks should have been completed at the Copenhagen conference in 2009.

Although Durban may not promise a definitive, all-encompassing pact, what could be a realistic expectation is a series of smaller steps that eventually build up to the ultimate, global accord.

Those achievable steps could include idea-sharing. Indonesia could share its REDD+ initiative in unilaterally reducing emissions from deforestation. Linked to this sharing of information would be voluntary cuts by developing nations. Meanwhile, Australia can explain its US$25 per ton carbon tax scheme that it legislated in October. This is a tax on pollution, a financial disincentive for those who damage the environment.

Other achievable steps are the establishment of mechanisms in financing and technology transfer. On finance, a pre-Durban meeting in Panama City on Oct. 1-7 discussed implementing a $30 billion fast-track fund by 2012 to precede a $100 billon fund by 2020.

On technology transfer, talk is on the setting up of a Technology Executive Committee (TEC) that will give policy direction. Another body being fleshed out is the Climate Technology Center and Network (CTC-N). Its job is to undertake the actual technology transfer to developing countries. Two outstanding issues of the CTC-N are the shaping of the governance body and determining the host country.

For its part, Indonesia still stands to benefit from these shorter-term goals even if no major multilateral deal is reached. Beyond that, Indonesia will continue to engage in bilateral partnerships.

In paraphrasing Lord Stern, the author of the highly acclaimed and equally criticized 2006 Stern Report on economics and climate change, the cost of action that nations undertake to reduce risks of climate change will be less than the cost of inaction and living with climate change.

The writer teaches journalism at the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute in Jakarta.

Link : http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/28/durban-conference-committing-commitment.html

Indonesia Optimistic to Surpass One Billion Tree Target

Source : Antara – November 29, 2011
By Fardah

All regions in Indonesia simultaneously planted thousands of trees to mark Indonesian Tree Planting Day and National Planting Month led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at Merah Putih Hill, Sentul, Citeureup, Bogor, West Java Province, on Monday (Nov 28).

The presidential tree planting ceremony was the signal for the simultaneous execution of the same activity by at least 8,820 people including servicemen and police officers, boy and girl scouts, and students.

Indonesia has set a target of planting one billion trees under a program called “One Billion Indonesian Trees for The World” (OBIT ) being implemented to help reduce greenhouse gases.

The OBIT program is Indonesia`s concrete contribution to the world to deal with the impacts of climate change and global warming.

Globally, more than 12 billion trees have now been planted in 193 countries under the Billion Tree Campaign, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Inspired by the work of the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, UNEP had initiated a world-wide Billion Tree Campaign aimed to improve the quality of life in communities across the world through the multiple benefits provided by trees.

These include tackling climate change through the sequestration of carbon, contributing to local economies through products such as timber and providing valuable ecosystem services such as soil regulation, erosion control and cultural values.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan is optimistic that Indonesia will be able to surpass the target on January 31, 2012, as during 2011 a total of 827 million trees were planted.

“Until now, we have accomplished 80 percent of the tree planting program. I am optimistic the target will be achieved in late December and it will even be exceeded in 2012,” the minister said in his remarks at the nation-wide tree planting ceremony at Merah Putih Hill, Sentul.

On the occasion, Yudhoyono planted a Manglid (Manglietia glauca) tree, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono a (Gnetum gnemon) tree, Vice President Boediono a Suren (Toona sureni) tree, and his spouse, Herawati Boediono, a Salam (Syzygium polyanthum) tree.

After the tree planting, the president presented awards to provincial governors and districts head who had won a one billion tree planting contest in 2010, and a greening and “Wana Lestari” nature conservation competition in 2011.

The country managed to plant 104 million trees of the 100 million target in 2008, and 250 million trees of the 230 million target in 2009.

Last year, the total tree planting realization jumped to 1.7 billion trees from the target of one billion since the program was launched in 2007.

The Forestry Ministry has allocated funds amounting to Rp3 trillion to support the program of planting more than 1.7 billion trees across the country this year.

At present the country has a stock of 1.7 billion seeds of which 600 million are kept by the forestry ministry, 500 million by state forestry companies and 600 million by timber estate companies.

The planting of one billion trees was started on February 1, 2011 and would be completed on January 31, 2012, according to Minister Zulkifli.

A number of private forestry companies have also supported the program.

President Commissioner of PT. Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP) Tony Wenas, for instance, said his company fully supported the Indonesian Tree Planting Day (HMPI) and the National Tree Planting Month 2011.

Tony said his company had three satellite nurseries in Kerinci, Pelalawan, and Baserah, in Sumatra, with a production capacity of 200 million seedlings annually. RAPP was planting around 160 million trees annually, he said.

Earlier, the forestry minister said activities under the national tree planting movement had been carried out in 23 provinces this year to help deal with forest degradation in the country.

The tree planting movement would be intensified in every district by 2013, the minister said recently.

“Thank God, public awareness about the need to plant trees has grown. A number of regions have tree planting programs. Hopefully, the movement will reach the district level by 2013,” the minister said when visiting a One Million Seedling Garden belonging to Budiasi Foundation at Sentul, Bogor.

The tree planting movement is carried out with the support of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) especially in conservation forest areas, in order to prevent illegal logging activities.

The involvement of servicemen in the tree planting program was crucial to help protect the trees from irresponsible people who came to uproot trees, the forestry ministry`s Natural Conservation and Forest Protection Director General Darori said in Jakarta Monday.

He explained that if there were 350 trees having an average diameter of 36 centimeters on a one-hectare area, the area will have a carbon sink capacity of up to 147.84 tons per hectare.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when observing Indonesia`s Tree Planting Day and National Tree Planting Month in West Java, on Dec. 8, 2009, asked the nation to plant 4 billion trees by 2020 and 9.2 billion trees by 2050.

“If we can achieve half of the target, the trees can absorb 46 billion carbon by 2050. The figure is indeed pessimistic, but if we could plant more trees, much more CO2 could be captured, and this will become our contribution to the world,” the president said.

At the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, in September 2009, Yudhoyono pledged to cut emissions by 26 percent by 2020 using the state budget and by 41 percent if developed nations gave the financial support to do so.

Earlier this year, the head of state signed a Presidential Instruction on a deforestation moratorium to help curb the impact of climate change and preserve the remaining tropical forests and biodiversity in it. (F001/A014) Editor: Suryanto

Link : http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/78016/indonesia-optimistic-to-surpass-one-billion-tree-target