JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesian villagers have taken up arms to defend an ancient teak tree from their chief who wants to cut it down to finance a new village hall, a report said Thursday.
Inspired by the “spirit” of the village’s founder, residents of Tuban in East Java have armed themselves with sickles and machetes and mounted a 24-hour guard of the tree, Detikcom online news service said.
They claim the spirit of “Grandfather” Danyang, the village founder who is believed to have planted the tree hundreds of years ago, had visited them in their dreams and warned them to save it from the saw.
“We have received magical guidance from Grandfather Danyang, that this tree should not be felled and therefore we are all here to safeguard the tree,” said Sukirno, one of hundreds of villagers taking turns to guard the tree.
The village chief had already felled and sold another teak tree in the village to pay for the construction of a new mosque, Detikcom said.
Indonesia’s forests are rapidly being wiped out by logging, population growth and plantations. Forests in densely-populated Java island now only cover remote mountainous areas.
Source: http://afp.google.com/
June 6th, 2008
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will present prestigious environmental awards to the nation’s 94 cleanest and greenest cities on Thursday as part of the government’s campaign to promote a better environment.
The winners of the Adipura awards include some of Jakarta’s municipalities and Surabaya in the metropolitan category; Batam in the large city division; and Palopo in South Sulawesi and Lumajang in East Java in the small city division.
“Only 94 cities, out of 375 nominees, met the criteria for the cleanest and greenest municipalities and regencies this year,” Gempur Adnan, deputy environment minister for environmental pollution control said Wednesday.
President Yudhoyono will also present the Kalpataru trophy to individuals or groups that have contributed to helping the environment.
Unlike last year, not all of Jakarta’s five municipalities won an Adipura award this year, Gempur said.
The government presented the award to 84 municipalities and regencies last year.
Gempur said most of the Adipura winners were in the small city category, defined as cities with less than 250,000 people.
“About 70 percent of the winners are from the small city category and only 18 Adipura trophies go to the metropolitan and big city categories,” he said.
To determine the winners, government teams assessed aspects such as waste management and availability of green space.
The award requires each administration to promote environment conservation efforts in areas such as schools, traditional markets, hotels, transport terminals and restaurants.
Gempur said the environment office would also announce the dirtiest cities, which last year included Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.
A source said Malang in East Java, which won an Adipura in 2007, would be named among the dirtiest cities this year.
Gempur said the government would also reveal which cities allocate less than 10 percent of their area for green spaces.
“About 90 percent of metropolitan areas and big cities allocate less than 10 percent of their areas for green and open spaces. Jakarta is on the list,” he said.
Jakarta currently has only 5,911 hectares of green space, about 9 percent of its total land area. The spatial planning law requires local governments to allocate at least 30 percent for green space.
Environmentalists have long accused local administrations of not making efforts to protect the environment or to set aside more open green areas for the public.
“We hope the Adipura award will encourage local administrations to clean up their areas for the sake of public health,” Gempur said.
He said the ministerial office would review the scoring system for future Adipura awards now the waste management law had been passed.
“Aside from the physical performance of the cities, we will also grade local administration policies on how they create environmentally friendly waste management facilities to implement the waste law,” he said.
The waste management law requires local administrations to close existing open dumps no later than five years after the law comes into effect.
Source: The Jakarta Post
June 6th, 2008