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Recently, the decision of Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Minister of Environment and Forestry 2019-2024, has been criticized by environmental activists for tweets on social media that raise pros and cons. As is known, COP26, a climate change event that gathered hundreds of world leaders in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. One of the agendas that she explained through her tweet was the FoLU Net Carbon Sink 2030, which does not mean zero deforestation.
Photo from Twitter @SitiNurbayaLHK [1]
Siti Nurbaya Bakar, in her tweet also revealed that the concept of zero deforestation is against the mandate of the UUD 1945 for the values and goals of the establishment as well as building national goals for social and economic welfare of the public.
Is this true?
Let's discuss the meaning of deforestation first. According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI), deforestation is a commercial logging activity on a large scale. In Indonesia, high rates of deforestation are closely related to development for agricultural conversion, mining, and infrastructure. Deforestation has several negative impacts such as reduced soil absorption, erosion, floods, and landslides [2].
If the Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar wants to boost development by ignoring deforestation. It is not only disappointing as a ministry that is supposed to protect the environment and forests, but it is also contrary to the promises of Indonesia's commitment to mitigating the climate crisis.
FoLU Net Carbon Sink cannot be used as a justification and solution for GHG emission activities, especially emissions from fossil fuels. The carbon absorbed by trees is dynamic, is known as the carbon cycle. Meanwhile, carbon stored in fossil fuels is static, so it remains trapped outside the atmosphere for thousands of years. This means forests can never eliminate or offset emissions from fossil sources.
Photo by Roya Ann Miller on Unsplash [3]
Preventing deforestation will prevent carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and replacing fossil fuels will prevent static emissions that sterilize the atmosphere as the shield of our earth. Planting trees, rehabilitation, restoration alone is not enough to prevent the climate crisis because it only absorbs the forest carbon cycle [4].
Is there any solution to dealing with development and deforestation?
Large-scale development for the welfare of people, without efforts to implement a healthy environment and development of human resources, is just fantasy. The midpoint between development and deforestation values must be harmonized. The point of view of development must be evaluated against the welfare of the community as well as the environment. Indonesia is responsible for the development, but with implementing the values of sustainability.
The planned deforestation that has been run so far by the government should be carried out by rearranging the hydrological system in the forest. This is related to changes in the conversion of forest land into non-forest land used for plantations, mining, household area, infrastructure, and the development of economic activities. The policies of deforestation must be clear and repressive so that the conversion of forest functions is planned with the right preventive and incentive actions [5].
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