Jakarta, 5 May.- President SBY gave a keynote speech today at the Forests Asia Summit on balancing a “green” economy with economic growth, including a call on his successor to extend again the moratorium on deforestation. Bustar Maitar, head of the Indonesia Forest Campaign at Greenpeace International, responded:

“President SBY’s legacy risks going up in smoke unless he strengthens legislation to protect all peatland and forests. Greenpeace calls on the President to amend the Peat Regulation which, despite good intentions, fails to set out a coherent approach to protect and manage all peatland - a critical defence against peat fires and Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“These peat fires would not occur if Sumatra’s ancient, carbon rich peatlands were not cleared and dried out to make way for industrial scale plantations. Protecting them and Sumatra’s forests is the region’s first defence against the forest fire crisis. The cause of the fires is rooted in decades of peatland destruction which has left vast areas of moist peatland bare, drained and prone to fires.

“Greenpeace’s supporters in Indonesia and worldwide have pushed big corporations like P&G to commit to forest protection – he now has the momentum to turn this progress for forest protection into a tangible transition to a ‘green’ economy.”

Companies including Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle, Indonesia’s biggest plantation companies GAR and APP, palm oil trader Wilmar International and more recently P&G have pledged to eliminate forest destruction from their supply chains following global pressure and campaigning from Greenpeace.