Archive for December, 2007
ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2007) — A tiny possum and a giant rat were recorded by scientists as probable new species on a recent expedition to Indonesia’s remote and virtually unknown “Lost World” in the pristine wilderness of western New Guinea’s Foja Mountains. The Foja Wilderness is part of the great Mamberamo Basin, the largest unroaded tropical forest in the Asia Pacific region.
During the June expedition, the team* documented two mammals, a Cercartetus pygmy possum, one of the world’s smallest marsupials, and a Mallomys giant rat, both currently under study and apparently new to science. They also recorded the mating displays of several rare and little-known birds for the first time.
“The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat,” said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. “With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip.”
The film crew obtained the first film documentation of several spectacular birds found in Foja, capturing on tape the full courtship displays of the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) and of the black sicklebill bird of paradise (Epimachus fastuosus).
They also recorded the “lost” Bird of Paradise — Parotia berlepschi (known as Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise), and the newly described wattled smoky honeyeater (Melipotes carolae), both known only from the Foja Mountains.
The Indonesian Government has declared the region a National Wildlife Sanctuary, and CI continues to work with the government and local communities to build on this conservation success and ensure even greater protection of the area. As the global community searches for solutions to climate change, large untouched forested areas such as these will become more and more valuable as essential carbon sinks.
The cutting and burning of tropical forests worldwide emits at least 20 percent of total global greenhouse gases. Protecting these forests minimizes the impact of climate change while providing direct benefits to local populations, such as fresh water, clean air, food, seed dispersal, pollination and sources of medicines.
*Conservation International (CI) and Indonesia Institute of Science (LIPI) scientists were accompanied by the first film crew to obtain footage of the region and its wildlife on an expedition to the Fojas in June 2007. A National Geographic photographer/scientist and a CBS News camera crew joined the team as they returned to the mountains. CI and LIPI scientists discovered dozens of new plants and animals on their first expedition to the region in late 2005. An account of the 2007 expedition was aired on the CBS News program, “60 Minutes” on Dec. 16.
“It’s comforting to know that there is a place on earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature,” said CI Vice President Bruce Beehler, who led the expedition. “We were pleased to see that this little piece of Eden remains as pristine and enchanting as it was when we first visited.”
CI and LIPI plan another expedition back to the Foja Mountains in late 2008 or 2009. This proposed expedition will seek to survey the summit forests of the highest peak, and the little-studied lower montane elevations. They expect to find additional new species of frogs, mammals, butterflies, and plants.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/
December 18th, 2007
Balidiscovery - Greenpeace in cooperation with the Bali Hotel Association (BHA) and the Owner of Bali’s Nusa Dua Complex – the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC) used the occasion of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to announce the launch of a new energy reduction program for Bali’s hotel industry.
Switch Off, Unplug, Enjoy
The energy conservation program, dubbed Switch off, Unplug, Enjoy – Energy Efficient Bali, was launched on board Greenpeace’s fabled Rainbow Warrior docked at Bali’s Benoa Harbor.
The program, based on a survey conducted by Greenpeace among 15 hotels in Nusa Dua in November 2007, outlines the steps than can be taken by hotels to reduce energy consumption and preserve the world’s natural environment.
The program which has been strongly endorsed by Indonesia’s Minister for the Environment, Rachmat Witoelar, is aimed at all hotels, guest houses, restaurants, cafes and entertainment venues in Bali. Socialization of the program will be done through a series of educational seminars conducted among tourism industry members.
The Bali energy conservation program has set for itself an ambitious energy reduction target of 40% within one year of its commencement.
Data published by the Jakarta Post states that 70% of peak hour electricity consumption in the Badung regency of Bali is sourced to hotels. Under the new program a number of energy reduction steps will be introduced, including the installation of solar panels for hotel hot water production.
One Bali hotelier estimated that a medium-sized property could cut electricity costs by as much as US$30,000 in a single year through the use of solar panels for hot water generation.
Source: http://my-indonesia.info/
December 17th, 2007
Orangutan plan to curb carbon emissions
Indonesia’s new 10 year action plan for conserving orangutans will have important benefits in mitigating climate change, according to WWF .
These benefits were underlined by the launch of The Orangutan Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2007 - 2017) during the Bali Climate Change Conference. Deforestation, for timber, pulp and palm oil plantations, have pushed Indonesia into the status of being a major carbon emitter, while threatening globally significant wildlife populations.
“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the launch of the plan.
“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”
As a mostly fruit eating primate, the orangutan also has a key role in forest regeneration as it disperses seeds which help regenerate more fruit trees, which in turn helps keep the forest healthy. Although the main threat to the orangutans - often called “the red man of the jungle” - comes from forest destruction and habitat conversion, orangutans are also still being hunted, traded and also smuggled out of the country for pets
“It’s opportune this Action plan is finalized this week, as the world gathers in Indonesia to make critical decisions on climate change”, says Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme. “Protecting orangutan habitat, especially in the peat swamp forests which contain significant carbon sinks, means both a secure future for the orangutan, and avoiding carbon emissions from the forest.”
As part of the orangutan conservation plan developed by the forestry ministry and NGOs, Indonesia will aim to stabilise orangutan populations and habitat from now until 2017 and return orangutans housed in rehabilitation centres to the wild by 2015.
The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry led the finalization for this blue print for orangutan conservation and involved key players and a range of experts at both the national and international level. WWF has been actively involved in developing the plan and is part of the small team that finalized the document.
Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/
December 17th, 2007
JAKARTA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) — Japanese truck and bus manufacturer Hino Motors Ltd. said Thursday its first-half sales in Indonesia had surpassed those in Thailand to become the largest market outside Japan.
Indonesia is expected to end 2007 as Hino’s largest overseas market with estimated full year sales of 8,200 units to grab 15.5 percent of the market share in the segment, said Toshiro Mizutani, president director of local subsidiary PT Hino Motos Sales Indonesia (HMSI).
The company also said overseas sales will for the first time ever beat domestic sales this year.
”The sales composition used to be 60 percent domestic and 40 percent export, but this year it comes to the opposite with export 60 percent and domestic 40 percent,” visiting Hino Motors Ltd. vice president Shimchico Sugisaki was quoted by leading news website Detikcom as saying.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/
December 14th, 2007
(Adds latest on talks)
By Gde Anugrah Arka
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Delegates at climate talks in Bali are close to agreeing guidelines for a pay-and-preserve scheme for forests under a future deal to fight global warming, Indonesia’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
Under the scheme called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD), preservation of forests could become a tradeable commodity with the potential to earn poor nations billions of dollars from trading carbon credits.
Scientists say deforestation in the tropics is responsible for about 20 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and preserving what’s left of them is crucial because they soak up enormous amounts of the gas.
CO2 is blamed for the bulk of global warming that the U.N. Climate Panel says will trigger rising seas, rapid melting of glaciers and more droughts, floods and intense storms.
“In the meeting this morning, it was very clear that there was enthusiasm from developed countries on the importance of forests in the context of climate change,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.
“Developed countries and countries with large forest areas agreed to formulate a world map as part of the cooperation, involving not just governments, but also institutions like universities and research bodies.”
Curbing deforestation has been a top issue for the thousands of delegates at Bali because the Kyoto Protocol, the existing U.N. climate pact, does not include schemes that reward developing nations for preserving tropical rainforests.
LAND USE
At its simplest, the REDD scheme would allow carbon credits to be issued to qualifying developing nations. Rich nations buy these credits to offset their emissions at home.
The unresolved issue centres on the question whether to put future talks on deforestation in a wider context, which includes other types of land use, a proposal backed by the United States and opposed by most developing nations, an Indonesian forestry official said.
The official told Reuters the proposal could take away the focus from forests, complicate the scheme and further stall its implementation.
So far, the Bali meeting has agreed to encourage individual countries to run a series of projects to help them prepare for REDD while agreeing to study the issue further.
The World Bank has already launched plans for a $300 million fund to fend off global warming by preserving forests, which includes a $100 million “readiness” fund to give grants to around 20 countries to prepare them for large-scale forest protection schemes.
Grants will fund projects including surveys of current forest assets, monitoring systems and tightening governance.
A second $200 million “carbon finance mechanism” will allow some of these countries to run pilot programmes earning credits for curbing deforestation.
Indonesia, a keen supporter of REDD, is among the world’s top three greenhouse gas emitters because of deforestation, peatland degradation and forest fires, according to a report earlier this year sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s development arm.
Indonesia has a total forest area of more than 225 million acres (91 million hectares), or about 10 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forests, according to rainforestweb.org, a portal on rainforests (www.rainforestweb.org). (Additional reporting by Adhityani Arga; Writing by Sugita Katyal; Editing by David Fogarty)
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
December 14th, 2007
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
The ongoing climate conference in Bali is quite a show for a developing country like Indonesia to host. More than 10,000 delegates, observers and journalists, and five heads of state and dozens of dignitaries are gathered to bring the Dec. 3-14 conference to its climax this week as they discuss ways of saving our planet, which seems to be getting warmer at an ever-increasing rate.
Granted it is a United Nations conference, which is picking up the huge bill. Indonesia volunteered to host it when the world body canceled on Thailand following the military coup in Bangkok in September last year.
The gathering has already been billed as the largest ever on climate change, a testament to the importance of the issue at hand. Either that, or many people have come because it’s being held in Bali.
Still, for this privilege, Indonesia is spending some of its own money, and deploying thousands of people to help with the protocol, security and many other arrangements, in order to make sure that the meetings proceed smoothly and safely.
Naturally, the most frequently asked question in the minds of people in this country is “what’s in it for us?” Without intending to sound selfish, what do we, as a nation, get out of this to justify the huge expense and trouble that we must go through?
In terms of tangibles, there are not that many.
Bali tourism is obviously one of the beneficiaries, with all hotel rooms in the Nusa Dua and nearby Jimbaran resorts taken up. Restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, car rentals and tourist sites are reporting brisk businesses, an added bonus ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday.
Tourism in Indonesia’s renowned holiday island has been clawing back its share of the international tourism market following the devastating impacts of two terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005. This conference is important, not only for the presence of the 10,000 people, but more importantly for the big publicity that it attracts, and for providing a testament that Bali is safe now.
The government has also been at pains to explain to the Indonesian public that with the right strategy, Indonesia stands to gain billions of dollars from the growing global carbon trade, one of the substantial issues being discussed at the climate change conference.
To bolster its chances of securing that money, Indonesia and other countries that are home to large tropical rain forests are pushing the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program into the carbon trading mechanism. As chairman of the conference, Indonesia inserted REDD, which essentially makes funds available for countries with large tropical forestry resources, on to the conference’s main agenda.
What else is there for Indonesia?
Other benefits are less tangible and are difficult to quantify.
The experience of hosting such a major international conference is in itself quite a feat. Those who are involved, directly or indirectly, have gained valuable skills and knowledge in organizing big events.
There is the knowledge to be gained just by sitting through the meetings and witnessing at close hand the process of negotiations and of lobbying behind the scenes.
The Foreign Ministry and Trade Ministry will have more people with greater insights into the complexities of negotiating deals after this.
There is the massive publicity Indonesia gets from being in the international spotlight. This is a new Indonesia that is very different to what it was 10 years ago — it is more democratic, more humane, more peaceful and more confident. This is a story that is probably not that well known abroad. This is an opportunity for Indonesia to tell its story.
The conference serves to show the world that Indonesia is capable of not only hosting an international conference, but also of providing the necessary leadership in directing the conference to bridge the huge differences that remain on climate change issues.
The message we want to convey is that after going through economic and political turmoil and a series of devastating natural disasters, Indonesia today is very much back on its feet, ready to play its part in the search for solutions to international problems, including global warming.
Thanks to extensive media coverage, the Indonesian public has become much more aware about global warming and its consequences, as well as the need to act, than would be the case if the conference took place elsewhere, like in Thailand.
So the answer to the question, “what’s in it for Indonesia?” is: a lot. It has made Indonesia a better host, a better organizer, a better negotiator and better at environmental issues.
After this conference, Indonesia will come out a much better country and a better nation. That is priceless.
Source: The Jakarta Post
December 13th, 2007
JAKARTA (AFP) — Muslim-majority Indonesia has unveiled one of Asia’s tallest Jesus Christ statues in the mainly Christian town of Manado on North Sulawesi island, the company behind it said Tuesday.
Indonesian real estate developer Ciputra built the 30-metre-high (95 feet) statue in its CitraLand residential estate, hoping it will lure tourists and become a religious icon, the company’s marketing manager Sonya Lasut said.
“It looks like the Jesus is flying to bless people,” she added.
The white monument — which shows a robed Christ with his arms and palms outstretched above his head — took nearly three years to complete and cost five billion rupiah (about 540,000 dollars). It also consisted of 25 tonnes of metal fibre and 35 tonnes of steel, Lasut added.
She said the Indonesian Museum of Records had certified the statue as Asia’s tallest Jesus — overtaking the 27-metre tall Cristo Rei in East Timor’s capital Dili — during a ceremony on December 2.
However, Vietnam’s state-run tourism agency SaigonTourist says on its website that the southern coastal resort city of Vung Tau is home to a 32-metre-tall Jesus Christ statue. A museum official told AFP he did not have a record of the Vietnamese statue.
Source: http://afp.google.com/article
December 12th, 2007
BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has begun a 10-year program to save endangered orangutans from extinction by protecting tropical jungle habitat from logging, mining and palm oil plantations, its president said Monday.
The plan, revealed on the sidelines of the Bali climate change conference, aims to preserve up to 2.5 million acres of forest on the Indonesian half of Borneo island.
As many as 50,000 orangutans have been lost over the past 35 years due to shrinking habitat, and “if this continues, these majestic creatures will likely face extinction by 2050,” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.
“To save orangutans, we must save the forests,” he said.
Two thirds of Borneo’s 74 million acres of primary forest have already been destroyed and environmental groups say the remainder is disappearing at a rate of 300 football fields per hour.
The Nature Conservancy, a coalition of non-governmental groups, pledged $1 million to the program, which “could lead to 9,800 orangutans being saved,” said Erik Meijaard, a senior ecologist for the coalition.
As of January 2004, about 6,650 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Borneo orangutans remained in the wild, while rapid deforestation has directly and indirectly led to around 3,000 orangutan deaths every year since 1970, the organization said.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article
December 11th, 2007
CTV.ca News Staff
Rich and poor countries have failed to agree on a plan to reduce trade barriers on green goods such as wind turbines and solar panels.
“What there’s no agreement on is the U.S.-EU proposal,” Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, Brazil’s foreign affairs minister, told reporters in Jimbaran, Indonesia on Sunday following two days of informal talks involving 32 countries.
“I think this list is incomplete. It won’t do much for climate change. It’s not proven what the effect it will have on climate change, maybe a little bit here and there.”
Brazil wanted the U.S.-EU list of 43 products to include biofuels. Brazil is the world’s top ethanol producer.
“The U.S. is a net importer (of these 43 goods). What’s complicated about ethanol is it shows up in agricultural negotiations. Part of the confusion is where it shows up technically,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters.
She claimed developing countries like China, Mexico, Malaysia and Indonesia were all major exporters of the goods on the list.
Pascal Lamy, cheif of the World Trade Organization, said developing countries are leaders in clean technologies. Freer trade in those goods would help them.
He suggested some trade rules could be tweaked to curb greenhouse gas output.
The trade ministers did call for the Doha development agenda negotiations, which would include trade in environmental goods.
The talks were in addition to the United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Bali, Indonesia to start the process of negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto called for 38 industrialized countries to cut their emissions by an average of five per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Source: http://www.ctv.ca/
December 10th, 2007
Gama Harjono, Contributor, Jakarta
Jakarta has recently taken part in a global event, the 7th International Week of Italian Language 2007, which took place from Nov. 5-9 in Indonesia.
Now in its seventh year since its launch in 2001 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the annual event quickly became a significant flagship to promote the Italian language worldwide, and involves a series of conferences, film screenings and debates as well as specialized updating courses for teachers.
A theme is chosen every year to mark the occasion. This year’s Italian language week celebrates “the Italian language and the sea”, featuring the works of Emilio Salgari, a novelist from Verona whose many sagas set in Southeast Asia were published in the early 1900s.
The National University (Unas) in South Jakarta was host to the weeklong celebration, which opened on Nov. was inaugurated by Ambassador of Italy to Indonesia Roberto Palmieri and Unas rector Prof. Umar Basalim.
In his address, Ambassador Palmieri highlighted the current state of Italo-Indonesian relations. In particular, he highlighted the importance of bilateral cooperation in the cultural and economic fields, with a goal to enhance the image of “the Italian style” and promoting Indonesia through intensifying Indonesian studies at l’Orientale University in Naples.
Attending the program were those who teach Italian in Java and Bali, two guest professors from the University for Foreigners Perugia, Prof. Maddoli and Bagianti, and Italian cinema critic Giacomo Gambetti. The latter conducted a lecture and open discussion on Italian cinema.
A presentation on the region of Umbria and Italy’s many traditions received a great number of responses from participating students. Most of these students study at Indonesian universities and academies where Italian is offered as an elective or to the public, and who claim to enjoy learning the Romance tongue with their native Italian teachers.
Gavin, 24, an Unas student, said the Italian unit was quite well promoted at his campus.
“Learning about the culture is what’s most interesting. I love their traditional feasts. Italians seem to well-natured,” he said.
Another favorable opinion was expressed by Yessica, 21, an English major student at the University of Indonesia (UI), who said she was going to Italy in July 2008 on a three-month scholarship to study the local language and culture.
Education appears to be a key point of exchange between Italy and Indonesia. To date, 468 Indonesian students are undertaking or completing their studies at Italian schools and universities.
Similarly, their Italian counterparts have received grants from the Indonesian government to study the country and its culture.
Filomena Vaccaro, 25, majors in Asian languages and is now in Jakarta undertaking Indonesian studies.
“We have Faizah Soenoto, who teaches Indonesian to Italians students at l’Orientale in Naples. When I first learned Indonesian, I instantly felt at ease with it,” she said. “I applied for my scholarship in November 2006 and l’Orientale sent me here. I arrived in Jakarta in September 2007, and I love Indonesia and its people.”
Furthermore, Vaccaro is teaching Italian at the Italian Institute of Culture in Menteng, as well as attending classes at Unas until June 2008.
Immensely enjoying her new experience in her host country, she graduates in Italy next year, and hopes to find a job in which she can utilize her Indonesian knowledge.
Italian appears to be the “new” French globally, although its penetration remains very limited in Indonesia. Enrollment to Italian language courses worldwide has risen by about 30 percent in the last five years, says a source at the Italian Embassy.
In Indonesia, Italian is taught at universities and institutes in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali.
“The key to have Italian studied throughout the Indonesian archipelago lays in mutual exchanges,” explained the director of the Italian Institute of Culture, Prof. Ostelio Remi.
“We need to strengthen our bilateral cooperation in all sectors, from sports to science to politics. There is an affinity between our two nations in terms of characters,” he said. “Indonesia is absolutely important for Italy as to its economic potential and richness in culture. On the other hand, Indonesia could learn from Italy’s savoir faire in many industries.”
Meanwhile, the future of the Italian presence in Indonesia seems to be promising.
Recently, Indonesian student Tri Astuti Oktavianti of Unas won second place in an international essay contest organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
And Shandya Rani Yunita, who studied in Italy on scholarship in 2006, is now an assistant of the Italian course offered at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University.
Source: The Jakarta Post
December 10th, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts