Jakarta – The Indonesian government's programs to tackle deforestation are getting a much needed injection of funds, with several developed countries committing to providing financial support.
Forestry Minister M.S Kaban, addressing a two-day conference on deforestation in Central Jakarta on Monday, said the German government would donate approximately 20 million euros (US$27.3 million) to help Indonesia in its efforts to overcome deforestation.
He said that the country would need the funds to finance reforestation programs and operations throughout the country.
The two-day conference aims at collecting information to be used as a platform for further discussions to be held in Bali at the end of this year.
The Bali conference, to be attended by top government officials, will be treated as a new benchmark on environmental issues, replacing the Kyoto Protocol.
Dieter Brulez of the German Technical Cooperation, a subsidiary of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, however, said that the discussion between Indonesia and German was still ongoing.
He said further technical discussions between the two governments would be held next month to determine the amount of assistance provided.
The collaboration of the two governments started with the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by Indonesia in 2004. The cooperation has provided technical support throughout the country since then.
"We help the people to understand that they can use the forest but still have to preserve it for the many generations to come," Brulez told The Jakarta Post.
Indonesia has cooperated with many countries to overcome environmental problems. Dozens of countries and groups have supported the government by providing assistance.
Edith Stelzl of the Hans Seidel Foundation said the foundation has established many courses that provide locals with skills to improve the environment.
"We provide experts to teach as many locals as can be taught about how important it is to guard their forest and environment by themselves," she said.
Country officer of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Atsuko Nishikawa, said that she had attended the conference to collect information that would be used by the JBIC to consider their further support for the Indonesian government.
Indonesia's forests occupy 120 million hectares of land or around 65 percent of the country's land area. Unfortunately, deforestation has significantly cut the country's forest area. Currently, the high rates of emissions from landclearing, peatland blazes and growing industries have made Indonesia the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitting country after the United States and China.
Executive director of the Indonesian Forum on the Environment Chalid Muhammad said he hoped the government would become more critical toward developed countries, and added it also needed to raise its voice about gas emissions produced by those countries, which contributed the greatest amount worldwide.
Japan, Britain, Germany, the US and Canada are five largest producers of carbon dioxide emissions.
"We have to force those countries to lower their emissions as well as increase our efforts to combat deforestation. Don't let them think that we won't criticize them because they support us financially. Global warming has become our common enemy," he said.
The World Health Organization estimates that climate change has directly or indirectly killed more than one million people globally since 2000, with more than half of those deaths occurring in the Asia-Pacific, the world's most populous region. These figures do not include deaths linked to urban air pollution, which kills around 800,000 people worldwide annually.