TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Conservation efforts hit snag after govt cuts WWF contract
In a move that may weaken environmental protection in the country, the Environment and Forestry Ministry has terminated a contract with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, blaming it for forest fires in a conservation area in Jambi
Change Size
I
span>In a move that may weaken environmental protection in the country, the Environment and Forestry Ministry has terminated a contract with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, blaming it for forest fires in a conservation area in Jambi.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar issued a decree about the termination on Jan. 10 to notify the group, which has been a major pillar in the country’s environmental efforts for decades. The contract was supposed to last until 2023.
WWF Indonesia has confronted the decision, calling it a “one-sided settlement” by the government.
“We questioned the ministry: Why did they terminate the contract? We never got a direct answer,” Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the advisory board chairman of WWF Indonesia, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
He said he regretted that the ministry did not provide a chance for the two parties to communicate beforehand, while the group said the major decision had damaged its 50-year reputation of supporting wildlife conservation in Indonesia.
Even though the organization stated that its programs outside the forestry sector had not been affected by the development, it explained that those with links to the forestry ministry should be ended immediately.
“We have a total of 130 projects from Aceh to Papua. There are 30 projects involving 19 percent of our total budget that will be impacted by this partnership termination,” said Alexander Rusli, the management board chief of WWF Indonesia.
The ministry’s natural resources and ecosystem conservation director general, Wiratno, said problems regarding forestry would need clear and measurable solutions on the ground, especially ones related to forest and land fires.
“Such problems will not be solved just by inviting celebrities [to talk about the issues],” Wiratno said on Tuesday as quoted by kontan.co.id.
He was referring to a dispute between the ministry and the WWF in August last year, when several celebrities, including actress Luna Maya and actor Lukman Sardi, posted on their social media accounts claims that wildfires across the country had been poorly handled. The ministry lambasted the celebrities for their posts, saying they should not post claims without a sound basis.
The ministerial decree mentioned that the ministry’s evaluation of its cooperation with WWF Indonesia had found that the organization “violated the cooperation agreement by, among other things, launching a campaign on social media and publishing reports that were contrary to fact”.
Wiratno added that WWF Indonesia had failed to reach the target for conservation restoration, mentioning particularly WWF Indonesia’s failure to prevent forest fires in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Jambi in August 2019.
The 38,000 hectares of the national park, home to endangered Sumatran tigers, elephants and orangutans, was under a PT Alam Bukit Tigapuluh and WWF Indonesia concession.
The restoration license was issued in 2015 by the ministry to allow the for-profit company, which was established by a group of environmental organizations and WWF Indonesia, to pursue activities that protect the forest area, which had been degraded by encroachment and illegal logging.
Elis Nurhayati, WWF Indonesia spokesperson, acknowledged that there were forest fires in a 100 ha area in the national park and said that the fires were started by a group that later hampered efforts to extinguish the flames.
She said the group was controlled by businessmen who tried to keep the area for illegal logging.
“We managed 38,000 ha of forest and two villages, namely Suo and Pemayungan. However, among those under our concession, we confirmed 100 ha were burned by fire in 2019. We didn’t say that it was a small number. However, when compared to the vast forest fires that happened in 2019, it sounds unfair to blame it only on us,” Elis said.
Nevertheless, the organization said it would obey the ministry’s decision and transfer any assets as soon as possible. The organization declined to give details about the assets.
“We apologize to the Indonesian government for whatever we have done wrong, even though to be honest, we have no idea what we have done wrong,” Kuntoro said.
Bogor Agricultural University forest policy professor Hariadi Kartodihardjo voiced regret for the ministry’s move due to the WWF’s role in establishing networks between necessary actors in environmental conservation.
The professor said he had been working on a collaboration project with the ministry, the WWF and other organizations in conserving Tesso Nilo National Park in Riau for the last three years. The WWF played an important role in establishing the network on the job thanks to its capacity and resources.
“Our capacity regarding environmental conservation might decrease significantly. I regret this happening at a time when we actually need to collaborate more to solve problems on various levels,” Hariadi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
“Both the WWF and the ministry will suffer losses from this dispute,” he said. (trn)
