Balivayatravel.com - General Information about Indonesia and beyond #6

Indonesia has one of the world's largest populations and a rapidly growing industrial sector. The country's energy demands are huge compared to its generating capacity. This has given rise to an interest in nuclear energy, and the country plans to begin operation of its first nuclear power plants soon after the year 2000. Meanwhile, there is a strong incentive to intensify use of the country's extensive natural gas reserves. As elsewhere in the developing world, deforestation is worsened by firewood cutting for

domestic use.

Indonesia encompasses a wide variety of habitat types and is home to a huge diversity of plant and animal life--15,000 of its 24,000 known species of plants are endemic. The country contains approximately 10 per cent of the world's wet tropical forest and expansive wetlands, most of which are under rice

cultivation or used for aquaculture. The fringing coral reefs of the country's many islands are of great importance in conserving marine biodiversity.

Urban development, agriculture, and deforestation are most intense and extensive on the rich soils of the inner islands, where the country's population has traditionally been centered. In recent years, however, the government has encouraged "transmigration" of large numbers of people to the outer islands. This has increased the level of exploitation on these previously untouched areas, where deforestation is now proceeding rapidly. The country's extensive reserves of natural resources have been used significantly to reduce poverty and to increase incomes over the past 20 years, but access to safe water and sanitation remains limited.

Although 60.6 per cent (1995) of Indonesia's total land area remains forested, about 0.96 per cent (1990-1996) of the total forest area is being deforested every year because of population growth and government incentives to industry. Although the government has banned clear-cutting and the export of raw logs, law enforcement is often inadequate and illegal cutting continues. In October 1997, fires believed to have been deliberately ignited to clear land for farming and commercial development burned out of control, considerably increasing the rate of deforestation. Thick smoke from the fires mixed with air pollution from Indonesia's urban centers mixed to create a blanket of yellow-brown smog, causing fears about public health as tens of thousands of people were treated for respiratory illnesses.

Indonesia's 1945 constitution recognizes the importance of economic development in harmony with

nature, and the Basic Environmental Law of 1982 provides a framework for the management of the

living environment, placing special emphasis on the protection of forests. Indonesia manages a protected area network that encompasses close to 9.7 per cent (1996) of its land area. Protected status has also been extended to an extensive marine reserve network.

Indonesia has declared six biosphere reserves under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program, and the country ratified the World

Heritage Convention in 1989. Cooperative conservation projects are planned with Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. International environmental agreements ratified include Biodiversity, Climate Change,

Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, and Wetlands.