Subject:  Irian Jaya (West Papua) Faces Green Pressures
***********************************************
Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
     http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives
	http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

11/29/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Indonesian style intensive tropical land management is poised to 
reach the boom period in the occupied western half of the Island of 
New Guinea.  The following article is a bit elementary.  Nonetheless, 
it represents some of the first media coverage of the huge challenge 
faced in conserving, and fostering ecologically sustainable 
development, of this tropical forest wilderness for the benefit of 
its inhabitants.
g.b.

*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title:   INTERVIEW-Indonesia's green Irian faces pressures                
Source:  Reuters
Status:  Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint 
Date:    November 29, 1999
Byline:  Chris McCall          

JAYAPURA, Indonesia, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Irian Jaya is Indonesia's last 
great reserve of untouched rainforest, but on a planner's map it is a 
checkerboard of mining and logging concessions.
                         
In the 1990s fires and unchecked logging have devastated the jungles 
and wildlife of Borneo, Indonesia's other great wilderness. A top 
environmental activist says Irian Jaya, the western half of New
Guinea, may be heading for the same fate.

``If all these logging companies are operating then you will have a 
problem with the forest, like in Borneo,'' said Augustinus Rumansara, 
local director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

``If you lose your habitat then all this biodiversity is gone like in 
Borneo or anywhere else where logging is very intensive.

``There are a lot of development projects that will create a negative 
impact on the environment. In Indonesia, if someone wants to build a 
hotel, you can sacrifice the environment.''

Distance, human disease and lack of infrastructure have been the 
saviours of Irian Jaya's forests so far, by deterring exploitation. 
Most of the concessions were handed out years ago under former 
president Suharto and few are yet active.

POLITICAL CHANGES AFOOT

But Rumansara says plans for greater autonomy may inadvertently change 
this, by forcing the province to look for more of its revenue from its 
own resources.

``All these regions will have to try to find their own income and what 
is in fact left is they will go back to their natural resources,'' 
Rumansara told Reuters in an interview.

``It will be worse. Our question is are there any checks and 
balances?''

WWF has recently made it a priority to lobby local politicians hard to 
make them aware of the risk.

In Irian Jaya, WWF is one organisation whose name carries some clout. 
Irianese say a letter from WWF will often gain you a warm welcome in 
areas where even Indonesia's security forces hesitate to go.

Seen from the air -- the only way to travel around most of the vast 
province -- Irian Jaya is still a sea of green forest.

Where exploitation has begun, however, it has had the same severe 
effects seen elsewhere in Indonesia. Crushed waste rock or 'tailings' 
from the major mining operation, PT Freeport Indonesia's copper and 
gold mine near the southern town of Timika, has denuded large 
stretches of forest.

CAMPAIGN TO HELP TURTLES

A handful of logging firms are active, particularly around the western 
town of Sorong. WWF recently successfully campaigned to save a nesting 
beach used by the rare leatherback turtle near there, which was 
threatened by plans to build a log pond, to store logs floated 
downriver before being shipped.

``We think there are only three or four important nesting beaches in 
the world and this is one of them,'' said Rumansara.

WWF persuaded the local people, who traditionally revere the turtle, 
to declare the beach for conservation.

It is not an isolated case but fighting to save Irian's forests is an 
uphill struggle. Until a few decades ago most of Irian Jaya's people 
were living in the stone age and still lead hard and poor lives.
The temptation to cut down their forests' valuable hardwoods for 
short-term gain is hard to resist.

Rumansara said WWF tries to work with them to make them understand 
they can make money from their forests without cutting them down and 
still have them for generations to come.

In the meantime, the loggers are running out of other rainforests to 
cut.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###  
This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non- 
commercial use only.  Recipients should seek permission from the 
source for reprinting.  All efforts are made to provide accurate, 
timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all 
information rests with the reader.  Check out our Gaia's Forest 
Conservation Archives & Portal at URL= http://forests.org/  
Networked by Forests.org, Inc., grbarry@students.wisc.edu