Indonesian Rain Forests

jan.adams@dfat.gov.au, helmut.hojesky@lebensministerium.at, Peter.Wittoeck@health.fgov.be, dstoytcheva@moew.government.bg, keith.christie@international.gc.ca, sushma.gera@international.gc.ca, jasenka.necak@mzopu.hr, evj(at)mst.dk

Dear Madams and Sirs,

I am deeply concerned about the international community's ignorance re: the massive carbon emissions from Southeast Asia´s peatland agricultural conversion and rainforest destruction, despite these accounting for the equivalent of about 15% of all global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels. On Nov. 6th, your government had been represented at the 12th Conference of Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12), and most of you at the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 2), to discuss the progress and future of the Kyoto Protocol. I am writing to demand that you support urgent measures to stop rainforest peatland agricultural conversion, and work to protect and conserve these vital stores of carbon and biodiversity. Large-scale agriculture and logging are simply an inappropriate tropical land use and are incompatible with rainforest peatlands holding their carbon.

Right now vast areas of Indonesia´s forests and peatlands are burning as El Nino conditions threaten one of the worst fire seasons on record. Stopping these fires and protecting the carbon rich peatlands is one of the most important immediate measures that can be taken to protect the global climatic system. Indonesia´s peat contains around fifty billion tonnes of carbon which will be released into the atmosphere if current trends continue and most of the peat is drained and degraded. Up to one billion tonnes of carbon are lost from Indonesia´s peat alone every year, and up to 2.5 times as much went up in smoke in 1997. By comparison, the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce emissions from all Annex 1 countries by only 188 million tonnes a year from 1990 levels. Peat destruction and fires are also causing large-scale carbon emissions, albeit on a smaller scale, from other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Brunei.

Oil palm expansion has been identified as the driving force behind the destruction in recent years, together with illegal logging and the expansion of timber plantations. Granting vast land concessions to oil palm and timber companies also forces local communities into remaining forests and peat swamps and thus causes destruction well beyond the area occupied by plantations. Peat and forest destruction are accelerating fast as millions more hectares are being converted to oil palm plantations, partly to meet global demand for bioenergy. Yet it is not too late: the catastrophic carbon releases could be halted, if not reversed, if all remaining peat in Southeast Asia was protected and the degraded peatlands were re-flooded and replanted, which would require international cooperation and funding. Pilot projects have shown that the restoration of peatlands is possible.

Time is running out. Only a concerted and urgent international effort can prevent the peat and forest destruction in Southeast Asia from destroying any hope which we have of avoiding the most catastrophic global warming. Your government needs to support this action. Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,