Save the Tripa Peat Swamp

Friends of the Earth Indonesia have taken the Aceh Governor and large palm oil company (PT, Kallista Alam) to court for illegally approving the destruction of Tripa Peat Swamp.

This peat swap is burning even as you are reading this, we must protect this area, draining the peat has left locals without clean water, children in the villages have skin diseases, livelihoods destroyed, all for palm oil. If this is not stopped right now, the Orangutans and forest in the area will be completely wiped out in a few months.

The Indonesian Governor of Aceh, Irwandi Yusuf, issued a permit to a local oil palm company, PT Kallista Alam, to convert 1,605ha of deep peat in the Tripa peat swamps on the west coast of Aceh into an oil palm plantation. 

 This area is known to have the highest densities of Sumatran orangutans in the world.

 The Tripa peat swamps are part of the Leuser Ecosystem, which was designated in 2008 as a National Strategic Area for environmental protection. 

Please email/fax/write to the Indonesian President: presiden@ri.go.id and CC your email to the Indonesian embassy in Australia:indonemb@kbri-canberra.org.au and tell him to uphold the law and protect the Tripa Peat Swamps of Sumatra

 

To hear from the local people please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICBxZ4zg8y8&list=UUl1E6wNmV37cW6jkR3hSPaw&index=1&feature=plcp

 

 

To:  The President of the Republic of Indonesia

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

 

 

In relation to the case of the destruction of the Tripa peat land ecosystem, that is part of the wider Leuser Ecosystem, we the undersigned, would like to convey the following:

 

1.       Our strong support for the Government of Indonesia’s strong commitment to protect the country’s forests and peat lands so as to reduce the country’s carbon emissions and achieve low carbon development[1]; 

 

1.       Our strong support for efforts to save the Tripa peat lands in Nagan Raya and Aceh Barat Daya Districts as an area for environmental protection that supports the livelihoods of the local people of Tripa in particular, and the people of Aceh in general, and also provides important ecosystem services such as protection against tsunamis and floods, carbon sequestration, as an important component of the Government’s commitment stated above (an analysis of the carbon sequestration of Tripa can be found at www.orangutanreport.un.grasp.org and www.un-grasp.org pages 47-52; and further background information can be found in the Tripa Truths information sheets, available at: photos.mongabay.com/11/Tripa-Truths.pdf).

 

2.       That the Tripa peat swamps have been designated as a National Strategic Area for Environmental Protection (as part of the Leuser Ecosystem) in the National Spatial Plan, and as an Area for Environmental Protection in the Regional Spatial Plan of Sumatra, and these plans mandate their protection;

 

3.       Our great concern at the condition of the Tripa peat swamps that continue to be unilaterally destroyed by oil palm companies with no consideration for the safety of local people of Tripa and the sustainability of the environment. Further we would like to stress that, based on the findings of Sawit Watch that oil palm companies regularly have deleterious impacts, for example at least 28 cases of social conflict were recorded in 2011, forest destruction, and pollution, we do not wish to see such conditions repeated in the Tripa peat swamps (please refer to the attached information, including the history of destruction of the peat lands and a petition submitted by local community leaders).

 

 

 

 

 

Based on the above, we respectfully request the President’s consideration of, and support for, efforts to save this area, both for the sake of the safety of the local communities and the preservation of the local environment, and as a contribution to the commitment to the reduction of carbon emissions that you have so forcefully made.

 

 

 

We thank you for your kind attention to the above matters,

 

 

 

 

 

cc :

 

1.       The REDD Working Crop (attn: of the Mapping and Legal Enforcement Teams)

 

2.       GCF Secretariat

 

3.       GCF members

 

4.       Representatives of Partner Countries.

 

 

[1] Speech of the President of Indonesia at the G-20 Meeting in Pittsburg on 25th September 2009, and the Letter of Intent between the Republic of Indonesia and Norway of 27th May 2010

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