Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Farmers in East Nusa Tenggara have lost 25 to 40 percent of their income due to irregular rainfall, while fishermen in the Maluku islands have complained of poor catches in recent years as they lose their ability to predict sea climate and fish movements.
Climate change has arrived in Indonesia, and it is hitting the country's poorest first and hardest, according to a survey by Britain-based non-governmental organization Oxfam.
During years of helping the poor in several regencies in East Nusa Tenggara, Oxfam has found a rash of climate anomalies in the last several years in the province.
Oxfam said that in 2002 and 2003, for instance, the rainy season was late, so farmers were also late to begin planting. In 2006 and 2007, the rainy seasons and dry seasons were so unpredictable farmers did not know when to start planting.
It said the unpredictability of the rainy and dry seasons has resulted in farmers in many areas of the province failing to harvest what they planted, creating a drastic drop in income and widespread hunger and malnutrition, especially among children.
"Income level has dropped by 25 to 40 percent while the level of malnutrition among children in East Nusa Tenggara currently has reached 36 to 50 percent. At the beginning of 2006, over 60 percent of families in Central North Timor and Belu, for instance, did not have enough food," Oxfam Indonesia spokeswoman Laksmi Prasvita told The Jakarta Post.
Climate change, which has caused high tides in many parts of the country and unusual sea temperature patterns, has also negatively affected the income of fishermen in many islands in Maluku province.
"They have complained that they can no longer predict the right time and where to catch fish because of the different climate pattern than before," Laksmi said.
Stressing the climate has also begun to affect poor people in other parts of the country, Oxfam urged the Indonesian government to help the most vulnerable from the effects of climate change.
"There are 39.05 million poor people in Indonesia, 80 percent of which live in rural areas. They depend on the agricultural sector, a sector vulnerable to climate shock such as flood, drought and longer dry seasons," said David Macdonald, country program manager of Oxfam Indonesia.
The deputy to the state minister for the environment dealing with natural resource conservation and environmental control, Masnellyarti Hilman, acknowledged that several parts of the country had been affected by climate change.
"That's why we have prepared national adaption and mitigation plans in the fields of agriculture, maritime affairs, forestry and industry. This will be included in our development strategy so that we can anticipate the impacts as soon as possible," she told the Post on Sunday.
The Geophysical and Meteorological Agency has said it has recorded climate anomalies in several areas in Indonesia, and has reported an increase in the monthly rainfall rate in some areas of the country, including Jakarta, East Java and East Nusa Tenggara.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its recent report that an extra 130 million people across Asia would be at risk of hunger because of climate change.
Oxfam said the advanced G-8 countries owe around 80 percent of the US$50 billion or more needed each year by developing countries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change.
"Developing countries cannot be expected to foot the bill for the impact of rich countries' emissions. G-8 countries face two obligations: to stop harming by cutting their emissions to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and to start helping poor countries to cope by paying their share of $50 billion per year in adaptation funds," Macdonald said.