Increase in fires burning in Tripa highlight Indonesian Government
failing to cease deforestation; orangutan population doomed unless illegal
activities halted immediately.
Another massive wave of fires
currently sweeping across the Tripa peat swamp forests has highlighted the
accelerating destruction and ongoing disregard of Indonesian National Law by
palm oil companies inside the protected Leuser Ecosystem, despite a high level
National Investigation launched months ago, which is yet to report on findings.
A recent spike in the number of
fires was recorded by satellites monitoring fire hotspot activity in Sumatra,
and confirmed by field staff yesterday who filmed and photographed numerous
fires burning in the palm oil concessions operating right across in Tripa.
The five companies at present
actively operating in Tripa have responded to the increased media scrutiny and
current investigation by increasing security on their plantations. Some are even
being guarded by military and police personnel stationed along access routes
while illegally lit fires burn inside.
“The ongoing destructive
activities of these companies during the investigation indicates their complete
disregard for Indonesian law and the authority of the ongoing investigation, and
the government is allowing this to happen.” Stated Kamaruddin, lawyer for the
Tripa community.
“A direct Presidential
Instruction is urgently required to bring an immediate halt to the rampant and
illegal destruction of Tripa, not a speech telling the world deforestation is a
thing of the past.” Kamaruddin added.
“There is no doubt that each of
these companies is breaking several laws. Whilst we realize, and very much
appreciate and support the investigation going on (by the Department of
Environment), it’s proving to be too little too late. These companies simply
have to be ordered to stop immediately, and that order to be strictly enforced,
otherwise the Peat Forests and inhabitants of Tripa will be lost forever”, he
added.
One of the five companies operating
in Tripa, PT. Kallista Alam, was challenged in court and its concession area
recently reinstated as off limits to deforestation and degradation in the 2nd
revision of Moratorium Map on May 25th, 2012. This particular concession has
been the subject of an ongoing legal battle as it clearly contravenes National
Spatial Law No 26/2007 and Government Regulation 26/2008, since it was granted
inside the Leuser Ecosystem National Strategic Area for environmental
protection, in which no concessions can be granted that damage the environmental
protection function of the ecosystem, and in which all activities that do damage
the ecosystem must be halted, and damaged areas restored.
Fires continued to rage late
yesterday in the northern stretches of the PT Kallista Alam concession.
Likewise, numerous obviously deliberately set fires were also observed in the
concessions of PT. Surya Panen Subur 2, PT. Cemerlang Abadi, PT. Gelora Sawita
Makmur , PT. Dua Perkasa Lestari and an area known as the PT Patriot Guna Sakti
Abadi concession, even though the latter was never formally granted.
“The situation is indeed
extremely dire” reports Dr Ian Singleton of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation
Programme. “Every time I have visited Tripa in the last 12 months I have found
several orangutans, hanging on for their very survival, right at the forest
edge. Its very easy to find them and we have already evacuated a few lucky ones
to safer areas. But when you see the scale and speed of the current wave of
destruction and the condition of the remaining forests, there can be no doubt
whatsoever that many have already died in Tripa due to the fires themselves, or
due to starvation as a result of the loss of their habitat and food resources”,
he explained.
The Tripa peat swamp forests
have received considerable international attention, much of it focusing on the
fact that the burning of Tripa’s peat swamp forests made a mockery of a 1
billion USD agreement between the Governments of Indonesia and Norway to reduce
carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, also known as the
REDD deal, since the peat alone in Tripa sequesters huge amount of carbon that
is being released into the atmosphere even now .
Tripa was also high on the
agenda at the first meeting between the newly inaugurated Governor of Aceh and
the European Union, just a few days ago. Furthermore, on June 13th at a global
policy address on the future of Indonesia's forests, ahead of Rio+20 summit, at
CIFOR, President SBY himself proclaimed that “deforestation is a thing of the
past” and "Losing our tropical rain forests would constitute the ultimate
national, global and planetary disaster. That's why Indonesia has
reversed course by committing to sustainable forestry."
Yet the ongoing destruction
witnessed by the coalition team in recent days is a clear indication that these
are simply empty words, and that Indonesia is giving no reasons for its
international commitments to be taken as anything more than mere
rhetoric.
Dr Singleton also pointed out,
“There is still a decent orangutan population in Tripa, however hard and fast it
is being extinguished, and there are also large tracts of land that have been
cleared of forests but never used. If these companies were immediately
instructed to stop all their destructive operations while the legal
investigation process continues, and then removed, ideally with prosecutions and
appropriate punishment, Tripa, its orangutan population, and many of the
contributions it once made to local community livelihoods could still be
restored.”
“But without an immediate halt
it will all be lost, to the ultimate benefit of only a handful of already
incredibly rich people based elsewhere. This whole thing makes absolutely no
sense at all, not environmentally nor even economically. It is simply greed, on
a massive scale. A simply staggering scale in fact.” Stressed Dr. Ian
Singleton.
Ian Singleton, Ph.D Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, PanEco-YEL Jl. K.H. Wahid Hasyim No 51/74 Medan Baru Medan 20154 North Sumatra Indonesia Tel: +62-61-4514360 Fax: +62-61-4514749 Mobile: +62-811-650491 Email: mokko123@gmail.com
Skypename: Mokko123 Website: www.sumatranorangutan.org Website: www.paneco.ch
Blog: IanSingletonSOCP.wordpress.com/
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