Greenpeace activists asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday to step in and stop the intimidation
against its activists conducting their activities in rainforest area of Kampar peninsula, Pelalawan in Riau province.
The call on the president's meddling came up after the recent arrest on 29 Greenpeace activists and foreign journalists in the peatland occupied by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and Singapore-based firm Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) on Thursday last week.
After being questioned by the police in the local police station, those activists were released with suspect status. Some of those activists were told to leave the country as soon as possible along with the journalists.
"Our act in the devastated forest in Riau was part of our encouragement to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to comply with his carbon emission cut commitment issued in the recent G20 meeting held in Pittsburg," Greenpeace Indonesia Country Representative Nur Hidayati told a press conference held here.
She referred to President Susilo's commitment in the G20 summit that Indonesia would be able to cut emission by 26 percent by the governments own
budget and 41 percent with the assistance of foreign funds by 2020.
She said that Greenpeace would send a letter to the president, asking for his attention over the arrest on the activists and journalist issue.
Nur said that a correct handling in Riau's devastated forest in Kampar peninsula would demonstrate the Indonesian government's real step in complying with its carbon emission cut commitment.
"Proper handling on Kampar peatland issue would be a positive chance for the government to obtain international good leadership point in regard of carbon emission issue," Nur pointed out, added that it would eventually incite foreign countries in allocating funds to help Indonesia in dealing with carbon emission issue.
Kampar peninsula in Pelalawan Riau province has been the operation area of the two giant pulp and papers companies, APP and APRIL. The operation of the two firms was responsible for the damage of 300,000 hectares of rainforest areas from a total of 700, 000 hectares in the peninsula, she said.
"The Kampar forest destruction was one of the prominent one of similar cases across Indonesia. Indonesia could show its emission cut commitment
from there," Nur said.
According to data issued by the Indonesian Climate Change Agency (DNPI), with business as usual (BAU) assumption, Indonesia' s carbon
emission to grow by 2 percent annually, reaching 2.8 Giga tons by 2020 and 3.6 Giga tons by 2030.
The data also said that 80 percent of Indonesian carbon emission comes from forest, peatland and agriculture sectors.
Indonesian carbon emission figure in 2005, which reached 2.3 Giga tons, made Indonesia one of the largest carbon emitters in the world.