JAKARTA Memories of today, 11 years ago, November 28, 2012, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) expressed his concern to all Indonesians who were pessimistic about the One Billion Tree Movement. He revealed the narrative at the National Tree Planting Month event in Banten.

Previously, the rate of forest destruction in Indonesia during the SBY administration was quite high. This fact is not a mere assumption. World recordkeeper The Guinness Book of World Records even said the same thing.

Indonesia was once considered one-sided in matters of protecting forests. Large-scale land clearing continues without any pause. This condition was proven by The Guinness Book of World Records, which recorded Indonesia with poor achievements.

They note that Indonesia holds a record as the country with the fastest forest destruction rate in the world in 2008. This picture was obtained because Indonesia lost 1.8 million hectares of forest every year.

The damage had its effect everywhere. Instead of only the government's image being destroyed, the lives of indigenous peoples to fauna flora were also burning. The damage was increasingly being paid dearly with the government's cover. The power of attorney continues to dodge that the rate of forest destruction is decreasing.

The government continues to echo this in high-level forums. Like a big point of success, the narrative is echoed continuously. However, what happened was the opposite. The agenda for saving the environment launched by the government is considered ineffective.

The agenda discussed by Indonesia in international forums is no more than talking about forests in terms of business, not forest benefits as a whole. This condition makes all Indonesians pessimistic about the government's steps to save the environment.

However, many of the biodiversity in Indonesia are now threatened. Not long after I arrived in Jakarta, my friend Alfred Nakatsuma, who runs biodiversity conservation programs for the United States Agency for International Development in Indonesia, told me that Indonesia has been included in the Guinness World Records because it has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world.

Indonesia is now losing its tropic forest the size of Maryland's state every year and the carbon released by this logging and forest clearing has made Indonesia the third largest country in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, after the United States and China. Brazil is ranked fourth for the same reason, "explained Thomas L. Friedman in the bookHot, Flat, and Crowded (2013).

Pessimism of all Indonesian people is increasing. Moreover, the government emerged with ceremonial agendas such as planting in the One Billion Tree Movement. The activity received a lot of oblique comments. This is because the planting carried out is not proportional to the rate of forest destruction of 1.8 hectares every year.

President SBY also felt the pessimism of the Indonesian people. he said he was concerned. He expressed this concern at the National Tree Planting Month event in the Green Open Space of Soekarno Hatta Cengkareng Airport, Banten on November 28, 2012.

SBY considers the government to have not had a maximum event. The government has perpetuated the agenda of planting and saving the earth. All of this was done so that the Indonesian environment was maintained. However, oblique comments cannot be ignored.

"I still remember that some of our good intentions have negative comments, are skeptical, and tilted. Ah, why plant trees, at best flood later. Is it true that if we plant trees, our country will get better? Ah, it's only a show, next year I forget, that's it. But I asked for his right to comment like that. "

"The important thing is that we also have the right to jointly plant and save our earth. I talked to the Minister of Forestry earlier in the waiting room, Mr. Zul, there are those who don't believe that we actually plant with a target of 1 billion trees every year. Where did that come from? Is the state budget able to finance planting trees like that? Don't believe me, "explained SBY in his speech as quoted on the State Secretariat website, November 28, 2012.


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