Indonesia Planting 79 Million Trees
Women plant saplings as part of a tree-planting campaign in West Java, Indonesia, on Wednesday, November 28, 2007.
Indonesia's president launched on Wednesday the project to plant 79 million trees before next month's critical climate change conference on the resort island of Bali, but said the country could not protect its rapidly dwindling rain forests alone.
Photograph by Dita Alangkara/AP
Associated Press
November 28, 2007
Indonesia, which is losing its forests at a faster rate than any other country, launched a campaign on Wednesday to plant 79 million trees before it hosts a critical conference next month on climate change.
Environmental groups have called the planting program well intended but say it will mean little if the government does not immediately impose a moratorium on deforestation.
Around 300 football fields worth of trees are destroyed every hour in the archipelago due to illegal logging, mining, and slash-and-burn land clearing for highly profitable palm oil plantations.
Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after the United States and China. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 80 percent of Indonesia's carbon emissions are from deforestation and forest degradation.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that if current trends continue, future generations will face food and water shortages.
"We will show Indonesia's strong commitment and action to preserve the environment and save our planet," Yudhoyono said as he planted some of the project's first saplings with members of his government.
World leaders from 80 countries are to meet on the resort island Bali next month to develop a replacement for the current climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
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