World Bank Supports "New" Indonesian Poverty Plan - 7 Million New Acres Of Tree Plantations

[hatrack]

JAKARTA, Indonesia, February 23, 2007 (ENS) - Conservation groups from Indonesia and the United States are criticizing World Bank support for an expansion of industrial forest plantations in Indonesia. The bank's report, issued Wednesday in Jakarta, identifies as "among the highest priorities," support for the Indonesian Department of Forestry's plan for accelerated plantation development.

"In Indonesia, plantation establishment has traditionally been linked to extraordinary deforestation, uncontrolled forest fires impacting local communities and neighboring countries and significant human rights violations," said Rivani Noor of CAPPA, the Community Alliance for PUlp and Paper Advocacy, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The World Bank report, "Sustaining Economic Growth, Rural Livelihoods, and Environmental Benefits: Strategic Options for Forest Assistance in Indonesia," explores what the bank calls "the challenge of harnessing the country's significant forest resources to better contribute to growth, rural livelihoods and environmental protection." While the bank says "poor governance has led to considerable environmental degradation: over 25 million hectares of the forest estate - an area the size of Great Britain - no longer has trees," the Indonesian plan would establish five million hectares of industrial timber plantations and two million hectares of so-called "community forests."

Neither of these forest management types would be good for Indonesia, the environmental groups warn. "The push to establish between five to seven million hectares of industrial plantations will cause tremendous harm to our forests and the women and men whose livelihoods depend on them," said Farah Sofa of WALHI, Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Indonesia's largest environmental group. "So-called plantation - community "partnership" programs have generated conflicts, impoverishment, and environmental degradation for decades, said Rukaiyah Rofiq of Yayasan Keadilan Rakyat, a local group based in Jambi Province of Indonesia.

EDIT

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-23-02.asp

[Lorien]

1. Nothing less than tragic

industrial plantations are a leading cause of biodiversity loss in many parts of the world, but especially in Indonesia and Sumatra.

[kestrel91316]

2. The world has quite enough "tree plantations", thank you. What it needs

is restoration of its rapidly vanishing FORESTS.

But I'm sure the difference is lost on most people.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. A cash-crop economy ... shall we look for precedents here? No? nt