Deforestation, Indonesia's latest record?

Hmm, yet another fact that makes me wander about Indonesia's future along with the future of our beloved planet. Anyway as reported on the news, Indonesian Greenpeace claims that Indonesia is destroying it's forests with the highest rate in the world. For the same reason they are suggesting that Indonesia should be in the Guinness Book of Records. A kind of record nobody should ever be proud of.

So what's the damage? The answer is 51 km2 (square kilometers) of forest per day!! With that kind of rate of destruction soon there will be no forest left, along with it all the biodiversity will be gone too and not to mention earth's lungs. Combine that with green house effect it will further speed up the global warming and we all know where that ends.


Now where is the problem? It's easy to point fingers on who is to blame, anyone can do that because nowadays everyone is an expert on criticizing. Unfortunately seldom do these critics also provide solutions. In Indonesia everyone blames the government, the corruption, the ignorance, etc. Now instead of doing that we need to think what needs to be done to prevent the further damage.

If we take a look in the history we can learn that deforestation is not a new thing, some of the western countries have already been through that long before developing countries like Indonesia. So let's take a look what is the problem here before jumping to any conclusions.

Like any other developing country Indonesia is still battling poverty and corruption is still a big problem. At the moment I would say these are the main factors causing the deforestation at the current rate. Of course talking about poverty many of disadvantaged people are exploiting the forest simply to get by, to survive. However the amount of damage they do although it is not right, it is nothing compared to the damage inflicted by the logging companies and illegal logging which brings us to corruption factor where greed plays it's role.

So in brief yes the government needs to step in and re-examine all the permits given to the logging companies, close down the bad ones and punish anyone who has violated the forest. In addition new laws and more severe penalty for anyone involved in illegal logging should be introduced to prevent it happen in the future. However there is more that needs to be done to ensure that forests will be there for generations to come.

People need to be educated of importance of forests and why we need to leave them intact. Such education has to be introduced through public schools and be given since early age. Ignorance is after all as dangerous as the corrupted mind.

I remember when several years ago my parents bought a house in the area where we still live today. Not long after we planted trees in front of the house, sprouts maybe 20-30 cm in height. At the time a friend of mine who came for a visit told me that it would take ages for those sprouts to grow into a tree. My dad offered a neighbor to plant the same sprouts but he refused saying that there is no place in front of his house.

Only in two years our sprouts grow into trees several meters high and provide a nice shade to our house. It was only after that some of our neighbors decided to follow our steps, of course they still have to wait for their trees to grow but in a year or two our street will have a nice tree line and shade in hot days. Bottom line people follow only after they see the benefit.

We need to make people understand that preventing deforestation is in the end for our own good. This planet could survive without us humans, but not the other way around. That's why we need to preserve the forest, preserve the nature, make this planet a better place to live for many generations to come.

I find it quite amazing in observing plants growing, from seeds, to sprouts ... How about you?

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Mangroves, saves the beaches, helps the people

Few days ago I've read an article in a magazine that was talking about mangrove. From this source I found out that there or some 70 different kinds of mangroves, from those which grow of the height of a bush to those growing up to 60 meters in height.

However the more interesting fact is that mangroves becomes more than means to protect the beach from erosion or to subside the devastating effect of Tsunami wave. Mangroves can grow in places where other plants would die in no time, because it has the ability to filter fresh water from the sea water and use it for the growth. Mangroves also retain sediments carried by the rivers thus as such it also creates new land.

What is even more interesting that mangrove forest becomes an ecosystem for marine and land life. Bottom line if mankind is willing to plant the mangroves in coastal areas, the nature will fill it with new life and this life will in turn benefit the mankind. A perfect solution for nature and mankind.

It was Gordon Sato, an American scientist and pioneer in developing drugs against cancer who was the first to be inspired in using mangroves to help the less fortunate people living on the coastal lines of Eritrea. A country still recovering from the war and famine. Sato observed that camels ate mangrove leaves, thus logically other domesticated animals could eat it too. So after conducting several unsuccessful attempts to plant mangroves, Sato finally came up with the way to do it successfully. After that he also thought the local villagers how to do the same and what benefit will they gain in doing so. Mangrove forest didn't just become a source of food for sheep and goats, but also a new habitat for mullet, crabs, oysters and other sea creatures. This mullet in turn attracts larger fish that are in turn a very nice catch for the local fishermen. The people on the coast of Eritrea now fully understand the benefit of mangroves for their future and are also planting more mangroves.

Now how about Indonesia and Bali in particular? According to the same source Indonesia has the largest total area of mangroves. However unfortunately the mangroves existence has been mostly overlooked, despite the enormous potentials even more for an archipelago country. Mangroves received attention only after the Tsunami natural disaster in Aceh few years ago and that only as protective plant against Tsunami.

Bali for example has a problem with beach abrasion in several regions, while on the other side there are still many coastal communities that live in poverty for example on the east and north areas where drought happens often. So what we can obviously do is plant the mangroves to save the beaches and help the people there to overcome the poverty. Of course to do that it would require roll of all parties included, government, NGOs and for sure the local communities. It shouldn't be difficult to obtain mangrove propagules since in south Bali there is a Mangrove Center, but before planting perhaps a brief study should be conducted on which species of mangrove would be appropriate for each area.

Learning from Eritrean experience, the leaves can be used as source of food for goats and cows and with the forming of hen new ecosystem, there should also be additional benefits from the sea potentials. Furthermore beside being used as fertilizer, cattle manure using simple technology can also be used to create gas used for cooking by the households and thus minimizing the traditional use of firewood for the purpose. Then perhaps if the cattle numbers grow which would also increase the manure gas production, the excess could be used to fuel a small power plant sufficient for a village. This way community would become more self sufficient and less dependant.

Once established same pattern can be put into work in other parts of Indonesia, particularly the East part like the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur where drought happens almost every year. All this can be done, the solution is there and the potentials are wide open.

Question is when do we start? Let's start immediately. I believe we can do it!

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