The press release below may be of interest to those interested in the forest fires issue and also in EU environment / forest politics. Regards. JP-Kiekens. ------------------------------------------------------- >PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 3rd April 1998 >EP blames forest fires in Indonesia on development project Raging forest fires Asia and South America have again caught the attention of the members of the European Parliament. This week's plenary has adopted an urgent resolution on forest fires in Indonesia, Thailand and Brazil. GLOBE members, including Maartje Van Putten MEP and Carlos Pimenta MEP argued in Parliament that these fires are a major ecological catastrophe, but not an accident. The El Niño weather phenomenon, which the Indonesian government in particular is eager to blame, has indeed worsened the drought. But the underlying cause of the catastrophe lies in the radical change of landscape engineered by forest clearance for large scale oil-palm plantation and government's ill-planned development and resettlement projects. The European Parliament in particular called for the Indonesian government to ³stop the activities in the framework of the Mega-Rice Project on Kalimantan² and called upon the Commission and Council to ³give the necessary support to the Indonesian Government in developing alternative projects to the Mega-Rice Project². The Parliament also called upon the EU to ³negotiate with the government of Indonesia and Brazil in order to encourage sustainable forest management². In its resolution, the Parliament also layed considerable emphasis on the need to improve international emergency action to extinguish the fires which are currently raging. _________________________________ Background: The Mega-Rice Project The resolution devoted particular attention to the so-called Mega-Rice Project in Central Kalimantan, an Indonesian province where last year forest fires resulted in extreme health hazards to approximately 50-70 million people in Southeast Asia. Last year's fires also resulted in losses of hundreds of millions of US dollars to the region¹s economy. The Mega-Rice Project is a government sponsored project. In 1996, the project started to reclaim approximately 1,5 million hectares of fragile and important tropical peat-swamp forests for a large rice-cultivation programme, in the face of warning by scientists, agriculture practitioners and non-governmental organisations. Since the project began, timber felling in the area has taken place at an increased pace by companies and by local people who have no other choice than to earn some money in order to survive. The project is known to be President Suharto's pet project. All-powerful and well connected timber companies gain huge profits from the exploitation of this province's remaining peat-swamp forests. The project, now a vast grid of canals, which drain and dessicate the peat-swamps, turned out to be a disaster: fires have been used as the cheapest method to clear the land. The vast canal systems which have to some extent destroyed the local Dayak's traditional rattan and fruit gardens and fishery, cuts the peat areas into patches of dried-out and dying forests and also is the cause of the death and agony of many wild animals. Hundreds of the endangered orangutans have fled from the fires and smoke. As soon as they enter local communites in search of food, adult orangutans are killed for their meat by the local people who are being confronted with famine. The orphaned baby orangutans are then captured and put in tiny wooden cages in abominable conditions. For additional information please contact: For more information, please contact: Nicolas Tavitian, GLOBE EU Tel: (32 2) 230 6589 Fax: (32 2) 230 9530. Email: ntavitian@arcadis.be ________________________________________________________________________ GLOBE EU is an all-party association of 96 members of the European Parliament working together to promote better environmental policies. The GLOBE Europe Network has the same objective and includes 198 members of parliament from national parliaments throughout Europe. At 11:37 08/04/98 +0800, you wrote: >To members of the IFL, > >Almost every other day, I receive request for information concerning the >forest fires in SE Asia. Just got one from a forestry researcher (China) >& a high school student (Montana!) the other day. I have decided to >include some WWW resources on the said matter here for the interest of >some of you: > >1.) Yahoo - SE Asia Fires (a sort of mother of all resources on the web, >on the fires) > >http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/World/Southeast_Asia_Smog/ > >2.) The Star Online (Malaysian newspaper) > >http://thestar.com.my/ > >3.) Sarawak Tribune Online (Sarawakian newspaper) > >http://www.jaring.my/tribune/ > >4.) Antara (Indonesian national news agency) > >http://www.antara.co.id/welcome-eng.html > >5.) Bangkok Post Online (Thai newspaper) > >http://www.bangkokpost.net/ > > >I trust that you'll find these resources useful for your requirement. >Please do pass them around. Thanks. > > >-- >******************************* >God Bless > >Nelson Wong >International Forest List Owner >Manager - MIS Division >Malaysian Timber Council >18th. Floor, Menara PGRM >8 Jalan Pudu Ulu >Cheras >56100 Kuala Lumpur >MALAYSIA >Tel: +603-9811999 >Fax: +603-9828999 >E-mail: nelson@mtc.com.my >URL: http://www.mtc.com.my >******************************** > > > >
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