Archive for the ‘Conservation’ Category
Menuju Kopenhagen
Pertemuan Para Pihak Ke-15 (COP-15) tentang Perubahan Iklim di Kopenhagen, Denmark, terasa penting karena menentukan skema pasca-Protokol Kyoto 2012.
Namun, keraguan besar membayangi hasil yang akan dicapai. Komitmen negara maju untuk menurunkan emisi masih dipertanyakan. Posisi China dan India yang dianggap kunci dari negara berkembang juga belum jelas.
Hasil penelitian terbaru Maplecroft menambah amunisi China dan India untuk tidak terikat target penurunan emisi. Lembaga ini menyebutkan, emisi karbon China, yang secara total lebih besar dari negara lain, hanya 4,5 ton per kapita per per tahun dan India 1,1 ton. Ini jauh di bawah Australia dan Amerika Serikat yang 20,5 ton dan 19,7 ton per kapita. Terkait hal itu, Presiden Barack Obama merasa perlu berkunjung ke China dan akan menerima kunjungan Perdana Menteri India di Washington.
Will the forestry sector be pretty in Copenhagen?
The Jakarta Post, 8 December 2009
Copenhagen will be at the center of attention these coming weeks. The Conference of Parties (CoP) 15 on climate change is an undeniably major event that will decide the next steps in mitigating global warming. Most climate change analysts agree this is a crucial meeting to discuss post-Kyoto Protocol actions.
However, there are still some doubts shadowing the possible outcomes of this meeting. The commitment of developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions is still questionable. The positions of the developing world’s two leading emitters, i.e. China and India, are also dubious. Given the fact that their emissions per capita are much lower than developed nations, they have a strong argument against setting themselves binding targets. Read the rest of this entry »
Hasan dan Hutan
Harian Kompas, 29 Oktober 2009
Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu jilid II telah dilantik. Sebagian besar pengamat menyayangkan dominannya politisi di kabinet ini. Janji presiden untuk menempatkan lebih banyak profesional tak terwujud.
Presiden memercayakan Menteri Kehutanan kepada politikus. Agaknya Presiden percaya, departemen ini tak memerlukan pemimpin cakap teknis, cukup cakap politis. Ini menggambarkan, pembuat kebijakan negeri yakin, sektor kehutanan tak menghadapi soal teknis. Kalangan rimbawan(ti) Indonesia berkeluh kesah dengan kondisi ini. Tak layakkah rimbawan(ti) menduduki posisi Manggala Wanabakti (MWB) 1?
Visi lingkungan dan peran pendidikan
Indonesian version of the post “Our ecologically illiterate presidential candidates”
Ada kerisauan yang besar tentang tak mencuatnya visi dan komitmen yang kuat para kandidat capres/cawapres saat ini terhadap isu lingkungan. Kerisauan ini perlu dijadikan bahan pemikiran. Selama masa kampanye, ekonomi tetap menjadi primadona. Tidak ada yang salah memang. Ekonomi adalah tema pokok kehidupan berbangsa. Namun, tanpa visi kelestarian lingkungan, cita-cita kesejahteraan ekonomi hanyalah mimpi semu.
Namun, apakah ini sepenuhnya salah mereka? Sebagai pelaku politik profesional, para kandidat tersebut sangatlah menyadari sifat dasar pasar politik. Mereka pun sangat melek dengan posisi voters sebagai konsumer dan ‘raja’, walaupun dalam pasar politik Indonesia, keistimewaan ini hanya terjadi pada saat pemilu. Karena mereka menyadari keinginan para pemilih inilah, isu lingkungan tidak mengemuka. Para pemimpin tersebut tahu, rakyat negeri ini masih buta ekologis. Isu ini tak layak jual. Alhasil, tema keberlanjutan sistem lingkungan sebagai fondasi dasar keberlanjutan sistem ekonomi sumberdaya tak mencuat. Kalaupun ada, ia hanya menempati pinggiran lembaran-lembaran manifesto, poin tak penting kontrak politik atau catatan tambahan kampanye.
Nature’s messages and a collective destiny
The Jakarta Post, June 18, 2009
People around the world have been besieged by the hysteria of the spread of H1N1 flu for the past few months. Even 
though the threat is not as imminent as first predicted, it is still a major concern. A distribution map of the disease, recently released by the World Health Organization, shows that affected people have been identified in four continents. The organization is working flat-out to deal with the problem.
Andrew Nikiforuk said in his book Pandemonium (2006) that biological invaders such as infectious diseases could easily spread across the globe. They would find three conditions which are unique to this era: a global economy, acute urban crowding and a high level of human mobility; conditions that did not exist in the era of our ancestors. Without proper preparation, a pandemic is just a matter of time, since the disease could spread into unknown territory. The anxiety is intensified because it is taking place in the middle of a global financial crisis. And Indonesia is still under threat from another kind of biological threat: bird flu.
The last tiger standing
The Jakarta Post, June 2, 2009
During February and March, The Jakarta Post reported there had been several Sumatran tiger attacks on villagers in Jambi and Riau, in which some people had been killed. As payback, several Sumatran tigers were trapped and killed by the community. This was not the first case of human-wildlife conflicts in Indonesia, and seems unlikely to be the last.
Such conflicts – most often between humans and tigers or humans and elephants – have been recurring themes in news from Sumatra. A successful wildlife conservation drive could thus create a positive image of Indonesia in the eyes of the rest of the world. During his visit to Japan recently, Vice President Jusuf Kalla was cheered on by the roars of a domesticated Sumatran tiger. Of course, conservation is not an easy area to address. Tiger relocations, for example, are often rejected by communities living near forests. Wildlife conservation is really a complicated business in Indonesia.
