|
Throughout Indonesia considerable damage
has been done to the environment mostly by illegal logging
operations. For many years logging companies notably from
Malaysia went through the Islands of Indonesia removing
every tree. In recent years entrepreneurs ask for land
to develop palm oil plantations, they are given native
forested land, they remove the trees but often do not use
the logged land.
There was a time when the forest provided
everything for the people, food clothing, medicines, shade,
boats and houses. The forests also had a vital part to
play in creating the micro climate and maintaining rainfall.
The forest also kept the ground moist and the rivers flowing.
With the removal of the forests the land
has become dry and hot, there is less rainfall, the rivers
dry up and the watertable has fallen. Water shortages are
common and the land is not able to support the people any
more. When the rains do come there are often landslides
due to the lack of stability the trees provided. Erosion
is widespread and topsoil is washed into rivers and down
to the sea causing pollution that kills fish and the reefs.
In the poorer areas, where with no other
source of income the people turn to the land to support
them, the people are too poor to buy kerosene for cooking
fuel. Instead they cut any wood they can find. Mangroves
have now been severely depleted in many places.
The people also use farming practices
that cause further destruction. They burn anything that is
left so that they can grow meagre crops of peanuts and
dryland rice. As the land has become drier and hotter the
people have moved higher and higher up the hillsides which
reduces rainfall and increases erosion even more.
It is a cycle of destruction that is creating
deserts. In many areas the land has become so critical
that recovery may not be possible.
Yayasan Peduli is developing integrated projects
that can rehabilitate the land while providing source of
work and income for the people. If these two issues can
be addressed simultaneously in a way that is practical
and provides immediate economic benefit for the people
that such projects will succeed.
An example is the production of oil for cooking
fuel from tree based fruits such as palm oil, castor oil
and coconuts. The aim is that instead of cutting trees
for cooking fuel people will be growing trees for cooking
fuel. The people will have a vested interest in growing
trees and proetcting them.
Yayasan Peduli is developing a comprehensive
and integrated project for the island of Sumbawa based
in the growing of trees. We have already got the support
of a number of key agencies. We are currently seeking funding. |
