Govt ready to facilitate Greenpeace case

Antara News, Saturday, May 8, 2010 13:21 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The agriculture ministry is ready to facilitate a meeting between Greenpeace and PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology Tbk. (PT SMART) to clarify issue on environmental destruction by oil palm plantations.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, deputy agriculture minister, said here, Friday, that in a meeting between Greenpeace activists and Agriculture Minister Suswono on Friday, the international environmental NGO said it did not oppose the oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

"They are not against oil palm, but against deforestation activities. They are also against illegal logging activities," Bayu Krisnamurthi said.

Greenpeace also opposed the conversion of peat land which was not in accordance with the government`s regulations, he said.

The deputy minister said Greenpeace in the meeting with the agriculture minister, proposed that oilpalm plantations should be opened in barren land used to be forest area, he said.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner Bustar Maitar said Indoensia has one of the fastest rates of forest destruction on the planet, with palm oil and pulp and paper plantations being major causes. As a result, it is now the world`s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China and the United States.

To avert catastrophic climate change, he called for an end to deforestation and, to begin with, the government must declare an immediate moratorium on destroying Indonesia`s rainforests and carbon-rich peatlands, he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has an ideal foundation to implement his commitment expressed during the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, to forest protection in order to reduce gas emissions, he said.

Greenpeace has recommended an establishment of a global funds to stop deforestation in countries such as Indonesia an Brazil, by requesting advanced countries to invest US$45 billion annually for forest protection.