Indonesia: Forests and climate up in smoke

Indonesian forests are being destroyed faster than any other major forested country, for logging and oil palm plantations.

This destruction has obvious, immediate consequences for the unique plants, animals and people who call the Indonesian forests home. These forests contain between 10 and 15 percent of all known species of plants, mammals and birds that make up the world’s treasure chest of biodiversity. Orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, more than 1,500 species of birds and thousands of plant species are all part of the country’s natural legacy. But many of these unique forest-dwelling animals, including the orangutan and the Sumatran tiger, are on the brink of extinction.

While the loss of forests is bad enough, there's a double blow for the environment from forest clearance in Indonesia. Beneath most of this forest are thick layers of peat that lock up millions of tones of carbon. Once the forest is cleared the peat swamp is drained and often also burned to make the soil more suitable for palm oil plantations. Burning of the forest and peat results in huge amounts of greenhouse gases making Indonesia the world’s third largest climate polluter.

Brazil is the fourth largest climate polluter, with up to 75 percent of its emissions coming from land conversion and deforestation mainly in the Amazon.


More emissions than transport

Globally deforestation and forest fires account for approximately 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That's more emissions than the world’s entire transport sector. If global deforestation is left unchecked it will continue to accelerate the rate of global warming.

This urgent global problem needs a global solution. We have launched a Forest Defenders Camp on the boundary of forest clearing in a region of Sumatra. In the coming weeks we'll be highlighting scale of the destruction and who's responsible. But also in Indonesia lies the start of that global solution.

Indonesia will be hosting the next round of international climate talks in December. Governments from around the world will gather in Bali to negotiate about extending the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement containing legally-binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

We aim to ensure that deforestation is included in the next phase of the Kyoto agreement extending beyond 2012. The decisions that governments make in the near future are critical for securing the financing and capacity needed by countries to safeguard their tropical forests and to allow them to make a serious contribution to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Stabilising the world’s climate depends on countries agreeing to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and industrial sectors and completely halting deforestation. And, above all, ensuring that this is firmly written into the revised Kyoto Protocol.

Our struggle bears fruit: Libis brook is being cleaned up!

The clean-up of contaminated brook in the village of Libis in Central Bohemia has begun today. It takes place one year after Greenpeace symbolicly cleaned up a small part of the Libis brook and brought the contaminated mud in safety containers to the main entrance of the polluter, the Spolana Neratovice chemical plant. The stream has been contaminated by poisonous dioxins and other dangerous substances from the nearby chemical plant. After a long-time struggle and waiting, one of the big Greenpeace goals has been fulfiled.

However, Spolana’s behaviour has again proved bad as the company’s management opposes a thorough clean-up of the brook. Removal of the contaminated layer of the river bottom is not enough because the sediment on the banks are contaminated as well. To make people in Libis feel safe, the whole area including the contaminated banks must be cleaned up. It’s hard to understand why the mayor of Libis, Mrs. Hudcová, takes side of Spolana, despite the fact that a proper clean-up of the area is in the best interest of local people. There is a great danger of another flood, that may already come in spring, will once again wash the contaminated earth into Libis and the surrounding fields.

Greenpeace calls on the Spolana’s Chairman od the Board Miroslav Kuliha, Minister of Environment Libor Ambrozek, and the Governor of Central Bohemia Petr Bendl to stand up for the successive cleanup of the area around Libis.

According to the tests carried out by the Ministry of Environment, dioxin concentrations in the Libis stream exceed normal levels more than hundred times. The grounds inside the Spolana chemical plant are contaminated by a range of poisonous chemicals and high concentration of toxic substances can also be found in the soil of the surrounding area. In 2003 Greenpeace found levels of dioxins and PCB in duck tissue and chicken eggs from the village of Libis that were several times over the norm. Several months later, the State Veterinary Inspection confirmed Greenpeace's concerns when it found such high concentrations of toxic chemicals in fish and eggs from the villages of Mlekojedy and Libis that it had to declare them unfit for consumption. Moreover, according to a study of the State Health Authority (February 2004), which analysed the level of toxic contamination in human blood near Spolana, dioxin level in human blood in Neratovice, Libis and Tisice is about twice as high as the level of those from the control group in Benesov.