Development initiatives can and must safeguard local environments
This is the first article in a six part series about environmental issues in Indonesia.
Judith Mayer
Rice offering evokes sustainable farming ideals in BaliJudith Mayer |
Recent policy initiatives around the world recognise that the highest value of natural resources is often realised by conserving them intact and in place, providing crucial ‘environmental services’, local and global. Fulfilling the promise of such an approach is the focus of thousands of environment and development efforts in Indonesia. Some communities organise to harness new local opportunities presented by funds mobilised through global efforts to mitigate climate change and support more sustainable paths to development. Others organise to resist the devastating impact of the rush by private and state-sponsored investors to exploit resources sometimes being drawn into conflicts exacerbated by ambiguities of power in the wake of regional autonomy reforms.
The articles that will appear over the next few weeks in Inside Indonesia assert that the protection of local environments is a key to both health and prosperity. Nicola Colbran begins by reporting on local resistance to manganese mining in East Nusatenggara, where communities have come together to protest regional politicians’ corporate manoeuvres, which are devastating their land and degrading clean water sources. This conflict is a type of environmental and social tragedy all too common across Indonesia. Yet this time, local organisers may succeed in mobilising both popular opinion and the rule of law in the face of local political influence to protect their local environment.
The principle that industrialised nations should pay for people in developing countries such as Indonesia to keep carbon out of the global atmosphere has introduced two United Nations- supported carbon offset approaches into Indonesia – the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ (CDM) and ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation’ (REDD). Tessa Toumbourou discusses initiatives supported by European sponsors under CDM to help local communities improve their environmental management and promote sustainable development’ However she finds little evidence that CDM projects will actually reduce carbon emissions, much less deliver on promises of sustainable development for Indonesia. Jeff Neilson also questions whether REDD projects, including major new Australian-backed initiatives, will help forest dependent communities in Sumatra who have little legal protection for resource rights. He suggests that REDD, as currently formulated, could actually victimise communities like the Orang Rimba in the face of land demands by perhaps well intentioned international efforts to mitigate global climate change.
Walter Balansa’s article assesses Indonesia’s efforts to protect local biodiversity and intellectual property rights against trans-national ‘bio-piracy’ using a case study in North Sulawesi. He suggests that Indonesia must better enforce rules intended to prevent ‘bio-prospectors’ from stealing valuable genetic resources and potentially ruining the environments that produce them. He also criticises international researchers for failing to involve either local communities or Indonesian scientists in identifying and developing such genetic resources.
The final article by Nicola Edwards strikes a more positive note by exploring a growing movement toward organic farming and other sustainable agricultural methods, and the organisations that are promoting them among both farmers and consumers. Supporters are finding that food production techniques that are better for the land also lead to more reliable livelihoods for farmers, a win-win situation.
This wide-ranging collection of articles presents a sample of the controversial issues and debates on sustainability and environmental protection emerging in Indonesia today. Each of these concerns and debates is likely to change the ways in which both Indonesians and the international community see the potential for more sustainable development in Indonesia.
Judith Mayer (jmayer@sonic.net) is an environmental planner based in northern California. She has conducted research and consulted with numerous organisations on environment and development issues in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia for over 30 years, focusing especially on community land management and government development planning in Kalimantan. Judith also co-ordinates The Borneo Project of the Earth Island Institute.
