Green Gleanings 3 - Dec. 07

All these snippets of good news from Indonesia have been gleaned from the Jakarta Post

Biopore
Jakarta residents are being encouraged to drill 1 million 'biopore' absorption holes, which are about 30cms (1 foot) wide and 1 metre deep, to help solve the regular flooding problem.

Given the causes and scale of the flooding, this is probably a forlorn hope. However, the holes are supposed to be filled with organic waste which will turn into compost, so if floods continue but folk manage their household waste better, then this is one good idea worthy of support.

Budirama, the head of Jakarta's Environmental Management Agency, said the city also want to build absorption wells under the city's flood prone streets but was waiting for the Jakarta Public Works Agency "to release a concrete plan".

"Concrete"? Left hand, right hand?

Govt. to restore railway facilities
The Minister of Transport, Jusman Syafii Djamal has said that the government will priotitise the rehabilitation and maintenance of old railway facilities and infrastructure in order to improve railway traffic safety and services. Naturally, "the program will be conducted in phases due to the limited state budget."

This is probably the major factor in inviting "the private sector to invest in the planned construction of cargo trains in resource-rich Sumatra ans Kalimantan to serve the mining sector on the two big islands as mandated by Law No.23 on railway transportation."

Jakarta Rail Authority?
The government is also considering establishing a new company to oversee railway service in Greater Jakarta in line with demand which is expected to increase significantly.

(If this means an improved service, this will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.)

More forest rangers
The Forestry Ministry plans to have 1,500 'elite' forest rangers by 2009 to protect forests from illegal logging. Currently there are nearly 900 'elite' forest rangers divided into 11 brigades.

The Forestry Minister, MS Kaban, said his office would also procure speed boats and firearms and train forest rangers on how to use them. He said "floating ranger stations" would also be set up.

Go Organic 2010
Given the public demand ~ "it tastes better", the Agriculture Ministry has an ambitious plan to become a major organic food producer by 2010.

Energy Audit
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is drafting a regulation mandating a an energy manager to audit total energy usage for all buildings and report it to the ministry every six months.

"An energy manager must know total energy waste for the building. The ministry will scrutinize it and give recommendations to buildings and plants can save energy without decreasing productivity."

(Setting all A/C thermostats at a minimum of 25 degrees is an easy start!)

Law 30, 2007 concerning Energy is intended to provide a framework for conservation and renewable energy. A National energy Board, to be chaired by SBY, is being set up to promote energy conservation.

Hemat energi, hemat biaya!

Green Gleanings 2 - Dec. 07

Contained Energy is a ‘foreign investment corporation’ (PMA) located in Jakarta, and now in Bali, offering renewable energy and sustainable solutions, generally through sponsorship

This is a partial list of their projects in Aceh:
* Solar power for 100 satellite radios.
* Solar/wind pumping for GTZ project.
* Solar water heating for Hotel Jeumpa.
* Solar/wind power for Bukit Suharto health clinic.
* Solar water-pumping systems for the Bukit Suharto community
* Solar security lighting and street lights for SMKIII vocational school.
* Solar home systems and street lights for Muara Tiga village.

And elsewhere:
* Solar ceiling fan for Jakarta International School
.* Ruggedized solar streetlights for coal mine.
* Solar water pumping for Lampung.

Endangered faeces
If you had wanted to give your loved one some rhino dung for Xmas, the auction closed early. However, if you're in Indonesia, you can always try to get some independently so here's some pap on rhino poop.

Javan rhinos live deep in the Indonesian rain forest and like to wallow in mud to keep cool. Males mark their territory with dung piles and urine spraying. Javan rhinos are so rare and so secretive that sometimes the only way we can monitor populations is through their dung.

Sumatran rhinos spend most of the day in wallows. These rhinos don’t spread dung around; instead they drag their back foot for several meters and mark scrapes in that way. In Indonesia’s wet forests, this method may be more effective than flinging dung around, like black rhinos do.

A giant rat and a pygmy marsupial possum, have been 'discovered' in the cloud forests of Papua.

Team Wild Asia
A free, independent, website on the natural history and wild places of Asia. Our goal is to promote the exploration, documentation and conservation of natural areas in Asia. If we can at least connect with like-minded individuals, it's a first step towards building up the critical-mass of people to help in the battle to protect and conserve the remaining natural habitats in Asia.

Subscribe to their newsletter.

Indonesian NGO helps small island communities

As widely expected, the Bali Conference proved to be an inconclusive shebang. Most media have focussed on the USA's intransigence and unwillingness to join the global consensus until it was time to go home. A few conciliatory words from their chief delegate lead to a standing ovation then a rush to the exits.

George Monbiot has written thus:
"After 11 days of negotiations, governments have come up with a compromise deal that could even lead to emission increases. The highly compromised political deal is largely attributable to the position of the United States, which was heavily influenced by fossil fuel and automobile industry interests. The failure to reach agreement led to the talks spilling over into an all-night session."

These are extracts from a press release by Friends of the Earth. So what?

Well it was published on December 11 ........ 1997. George Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.

In allowing developed (i.e. western) nations to buy greenhouse emissions cuts from 'developing' (i.e. poor with non-caucasian rulers) countries, entrepreneurs in India and China have made billions by building factories whose primary purpose is to produce greenhouse gases, so that carbon traders in the rich world will pay to clean them up.

Meanwhile, several nations which will soon disappear thanks to the rising oceans, could not afford to attend this year's conference. An Indian journalist has written about the role of an Indonesian NGO, Biotani, in defending their interests.

The Bali conference also adopted a resolution on adaptation fund to help poor nations to cope with damage from climate change impact like droughts, extreme weather conditions or rising seas. The Adaptation Fund now comprises only about $36 million but might rise to $1-$5 billion a year by 2030, if investments in green technology in developing nations surges.

A group of small island communities, led by Biotani Indonesia Foundation, has urged that the adaptation fund should include a special corpus to cover their initiatives.

$36 million. Wow!

Might rise ..... if ??

Who gives a shit? Certainly not the Bushes and Bakries.

All praise to Biotani who demonstrate that it's going to take us little folk to repair the world.

Green Gleanings 1 - Dec. 07

The eyes of the world will be focussed on Bali for the Global Warming and Climate Change Conference hosted by Indonesia and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, joint Nobel Peace Prize winner from 3 - 14 December.

You can get all the news on the conference, its speeches, declarations and reports without reading this blog, so I'll continue to Think Globally but Write Locally. It's worth bearing in mind that Indonesia is a key player in both causing and easing global warming. Besides Bali, as you all know, isn't Indonesia.

The November issue of the Down To Earth Newsletter focuses on Papua and its deforestation.

Large areas of Papua's rich and diverse forests are being targeted by Indonesian and overseas investors for conversion into oil palm plantations. At the same time, discussions are in progress to reserve large areas of Papua's forest to generate carbon credits for trade on international markets.

Investors include Koreans, Chinese, Singaporeans and Malaysians, as well as their Indonesian partners such as Sinar Mas. All of them have the backing of the Indonesian military.

The fact that the military and police are at hand to protect the company's interests is in itself a reminder of Papua's long record of human rights atrocities committed by the armed forces, and the history of impunity. The military presence is also more entrenched. With the creation of more districts in Papua, more district military and police command posts have been established, ensuring a tighter military mesh.

This puts further pressure on local natural resources, since a large part of the military budget is made up from external businesses. Personnel often turn to resource-based projects to generate income - either legally or illegally - but both in ways that push aside the interests of local people.

Still in Papua, logging damage has been revealed by secret filming.

Paul Redman, who has worked on projects for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in Indonesia for five years, said: "These are the voices of local people, the voices of the forest - explaining the issues that directly affect them and their lives. They are films made by Papuans, about Papua - they are the real thing. They were researched, written and filmed by them."

Riau in Sumatra has already been featured in Green Indonesia, but Down To Earth also focusses on developments in Aceh. Download the newsletter: it is well-researched with loads of footnotes.

Indonesia's women will plant 10 million trees to help make up for the massive deforestation all over Indonesia. SBY, Indonesia's President, was due to plant the first tree yesterday prior to popping off to Bali to check the arrangements for the expected 10,000 delegates, NGOs, journalists, jamu sellers ......

According to Mrs. SBY, tree planting is a hobby of women and none of them cut trees.

Dewi Motik, chairman of the tree planting organizing committee said that the planting of 10 million trees was also expected to be put in the book of records, However, as "Indonesia needs to plant around two billion trees in the next five years, the 10 million trees that we will plant are a very small number."

The country's hall of mirrors might be a more appropriate place. It's getting rather full of cock-eyed policies.

WHO can whistle for bird flu samples

The health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, is apparently worried that any treatment developed abroad could become a lucrative asset for its developer. Rather than allowing this to happen, samples found here won't be sent abroad for analysis and development of antidotes.

Wealth before health? Dog in a manger?

On The Right Tracks?

There have been a couple of initiatives announced recently which are worth praising, if not yet wholeheartedly.

On Friday a new inner city train service was launched , or rather resuscitated as it ran until 1978 when it was shut down due to a lack of passengers.

The air-conditioned cars, which run on the Ciliwung Blue Line and can carry up to 400 passengers per trip from Manggarai, South Jakarta, are expected to encourage commuters to leave their automobiles at home.

State-owned railway company PT Kareta Api has prepared 32 cars for the new line, but currently only four are in use due to a lack of drivers.

Despite its huge capacity, the train failed to attract passengers on its first day of operation due to a lack of promotion. In the morning only 12 people bought tickets.

That sounds like a ready made excuse to shut the service down again.

The Post also reported that transportation company PT Zebra Nusataran and state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) have agreed to build a railway connecting the Jababeka industrial estate in Cikareng, West Java, with Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta.

Hopefully, when operational, that will substantially reduce the number of trucks on the inner-city toll roads responsible for most of the traffic jams.

Elsewhere

Did you know that the 6m servers in America's data centres, when factoring in the energy needed to run and cool them, consume more energy than all the US's TV sets (over 300m).

This blog comes to you from the Good 'Ol USA. So perhaps we should praise Google's initiative to to develop and help stimulate the creation of renewable energy technologies that are cheaper than coal-generated power.

The effort is aimed at reducing Google’s own mounting energy costs to run its vast data centers, while also fighting climate change and helping to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

And that surely is a true definition of Corporate Social Responsibility.