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Action Alert: Indonesia's Biofuel Expansion on Rainforest Peatlands to Accelerate Climate Change
Let the President know the world expects Indonesia to keep the Environment Minister's promise to tackle the root causes of rainforest fires and peatland drainage
By
Climate Ark, a project of Ecological Internet
-
February 18, 2007
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1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
Indonesia's Ancient Rainforests and Peatland Soils Hold Tremendous Carbon Stores (link)
Indonesia's rainforests contain 60% of all the tropical peat in the world.
Peatland rainforests are wet, swampy rainforests that when drained and cleared,
their peat filled soils become highly susceptible to long burning, carbon and
methane rich fires. Such rainforests on peat soils are one of the world's most important carbon sinks and
play a vital
role in helping to regulate the global climate. They are also very rich in
biodiversity and a refuge for species like orang-utans, since most of the
non-peat lowland forests have already been cleared.
Rainforest peatlands are being
destroyed fast; primarily by palm oil, timber, and paper and pulp companies. The
Indonesian government has endorsed a massive biofuel program which foresees an
increase in oil palm plantations from currently just over 6 million hectares to eventually over 26 million hectares. 5.25 million hectares have just been
allocated for biofuel production, including one million hectares to PT SMART, one
of the companies which was involved in agreements for a mega-plantation in the
part of Kalimantan known as the 'Heart of Borneo' which has been halted for the
time being, but is likely to reemerge at some point in some guise or other.
Indonesia's biofuel expansion spurred on largely by the European market is likely
to be the death-knoll for most of Indonesia's remaining rainforests and peatlands. Far from reducing climate change emissions, it will rapidly release
up to 50 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. This is the equivalent of
over 6 years of global fossil fuel emissions and could well make the generally
accepted 2 degree C of warming
that is considered "dangerous" unavoidable. This surge of carbon originating in
cleared peatland rainforests alone could well take the planet to beyond the
climate tipping point, releasing major feedbacks which worsen global heating
such as large-scale methane release from permafrost and ocean clathrates, and
causing the rapid break-up of the ice shelves and unstoppable mass extinctions.
Already,
Indonesia's carbon emissions from peat drainage and fires put the country in
third place for CO2 emissions worldwide. A recent study has found that one ton
of biodiesel made from palm oil grown on Southeast Asia's peatlands is linked
to the emission of 10-30 tons of carbon dioxide. Shockingly, this is 2-8 times
as much carbon released as in production of a ton of fossil fuel diesel. Far from
helping with development, monoculture plantations have been linked to increased
rural poverty and hundreds of conflicts over land rights.
After a particularly devastating fire season in 2006, the Indonesian Environment
Ministry recently promised to tackle the root causes of the peat fires: to
restore water levels in areas which have been drained, to protect natural forest
from future plantation development, and to take action to drastically reduce
future fires. It is essential that those promises are backed up by real action.
These promises are incompatible with the expansion of monoculture plantations in
Indonesia, and thus with the government's biofuel program.
Please write to the Indonesian government now to express your grave concerns
over biofuel expansion plans which threaten to further destroy rainforests and
peatlands, and to thus dangerously accelerate global warming.
Sample Email Sent
Indonesia's peatland biofuel threatens rainforests and global climate
Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of the Republic of Indonesia
Dear Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
In December this year, Indonesia will be hosting the
United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties
(COP 13) and the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto
Protocol (CMP 3). Climate change gravely threatens
Indonesia as well as the rest of the world, and I hope
that your Government will be able to provide strong
leadership for international action to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions fast and steeply. Indonesia's carbon
emissions are the third highest in the world, due
primarily to the vast emissions from rainforest
destruction including peat drainage and fires. Your
government will be judged by what you will do this year to
tackle the root causes of those emissions.
I was pleased to hear that your Government's Environment
Minister Rachmat Witoelar has promised effective action to
tackle the root causes of the annual peat and forest fires
in Indonesia. However, those promises are incompatible
with plans to expand monocultures for biofuels by 5.25
million hectares now, and by 20 million hectares in coming
years. This massive expansion program will either directly
destroy most of your country's remaining rainforests and
peatlands, or indirectly by taking up scarce land
resources and displacing farming communities into the
peatlands and forests. Far from promoting rural
development, palm oil expansion is already linked to
hundreds of social conflicts over land rights, food
security, rural poverty, soil erosion, destruction of
water catchment areas and worsening health conditions,
particularly in the peatlands.
Sacrificing Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands for
biofuels - mostly to supply the European market - will
vastly accelerate global warming, and could release up to
fifty billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere. This is
the equivalent of over six years of global fossil fuel
emissions and could well make 2 degree C warming
unavoidable, taking the planet past the climate tipping
point. Far from being climate friendly, palm oil
biodiesel, particularly that which comes from the
peatlands, has been linked to far higher greenhouse gas
emissions than the equivalent of fossil fuel diesel. A
recent study has found that one ton of biodiesel made from
palm oil grown on Southeast Asia’s peatlands is linked to
the emission of 10-30 tons of carbon dioxide. Shockingly,
this is 2-8 times as much carbon released as in production
of a ton of fossil fuel diesel.
I urge you to withdraw the plans for biofuel expansion,
and drop any plans for reviving the Central Kalimantan
peat reclamation project, responsible for a large part of
the carbon emissions from peat fires and for massive land
degradation. In order to prevent future mega fires and to
tackle deforestation, Indonesia must immediately ratify
the Transboundary Haze Agreement and to fully implement
it. There must be no further logging and land conversion
in Indonesia's remaining rainforests and in the peatlands,
and selectively logged rainforest must be given the chance
to regenerate, not be cleared for plantations. Ecological
restoration schemes must be supported in drained and
logged peatlands. There must be full consultation with
local communities and NGOs about this and the needs of the
local population must be taken into account. Monoculture
expansion must not be allowed to put further pressure on
the lands on which local people depend for their food
security, and the land rights of local and indigenous
communities must be respected. Please withdraw recent
concessions for land not yet converted to plantations –
including the one million hectares recently promised to PT
SMART (Sinar Mas). The international community must be
challenged to provide significant funding for this avoided
deforestation.
The world is watching, and depending upon you to show
leadership by truly tackling as promised by Mr
Witoelar the root causes of peat fires, drainage and
deforestation, which are a major cause of global climate
change that threaten us all.
Regards,
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