WRITTEN QUESTION E-0865/98 by Anita Pollack (PSE) to the Commission (26 March 1998)

Subject: Tropical forests and biodiversity in Indonesia

The Commission has said that it has contributed ECU 107 million to improve the situation of forests and biodiversity in Indonesia since 1992. Given that forests in that country continue to be exploited on an unsustainable basis and that the uncontrolled fires appear to be continuing for a second year, can the Commission detail what projects or measures have been supported, including their location, and provide an assessment of the effectiveness of the EU money spent?

Answer given by Mr Marin on behalf of the Commission (11 May 1998)

While the Commission has committed up to 107 MECU to its forest sector programme in Indonesia - the 'EC-Indonesia forest programme' (ECIFP) - since 1992, implementation of the individual projects is on a phased basis. Two commenced in 1995, a further two in 1996 and the fifth is due to begin implementation later this year.

The ECIFP projects address key issues particularly relevant to tropical forests' sustainable management and conservation:

- sectoral support to forest inventory and monitoring, based on test areas in Southern Sumatra, and support to forestry radio communications, covering five provinces of Sumatra, through the 'EC-Indonesia forest sector support programme' - project No ALA/92/42 (started 1995);

- forest fire prevention and control in the province of South Sumatra through the 'Forest fire prevention and control project' No B7-5041/1/1992/12 (started 1995);

- conservation of the Leuser eco-system (Aceh/North Sumatra) and development of its buffer zone through the 'Leuser development programme' - project No ALA/94/26 (started 1996);

- development of sustainable forest management (East Kalimantan) through the 'Berau forest management project' - No B7-5041/1/94/21 (started 1996);

- sustainable utilisation of production forests (South and Central Kalimantan) through the 'South/Central Kalimantan production forest programme' - project No ALA/95/18 (to be started).

The ECIFP is conceived as a comprehensive programme. Positive results will become increasingly visible in the coming years after the completion of the individual projects. It should be noted that projects addressing the issue of conservation and sustainable management of natural resources - aiming to bring about positive changes in the attitude of the those involved - are by their own nature long-term exercises. In the ECIFP each project gives particular support to a specific sub-sector, while the whole programme provides a basis for developing the principles of conservation and sustainable management of the Indonesian forests. In order to maximise the sectoral impact of the programme the Commission and the government of Indonesia have also established in mid-1997 the Forest liaison bureau within the ministry of Forestry in Jakarta.

While much of the programme is still in the early stages of implementation, a number of positive outputs are already apparent. For example, the pilot forest fire prevention and control project in South Sumatra has established a receiving station for capturing and interpreting satellite data, which provides the government of Indonesia on a regular basis with information regarding 'hot spots' (indicators of ongoing fire events). The project has trained more than 200 firefighters, supplied basic fire-fighting equipment and established fire management centres, while public awareness of the importance of fire prevention is being increased in an innovative approach through local schools. In addition, among the positive initial results of the ECIFP can be mentioned active contribution to the cancellation of inappropriate logging; support for the management and protection of the Leuser national park, and development of methodologies for sustainable forest management including the introduction of environmentally friendly timber extraction methods and participation of local communities in planning and decision making.

Assessment of the effectiveness of the Community funding is part of the on-going general evaluation of the forestry programmes in developing countries established within the Commission. First results are expected during the second part of 1998, which will be supplemented by a more specific evaluation of the ECIFP planned to start at the end of 1999.

Finally it should be mentioned that the Joint research centre (JRC) is also providing a valuable contribution through its research and development programme on the detection and monitoring of deforestation and fires in insular Southeast Asia. In particular, through its FIRE project, the JRC is in the process of implementing a forest fires monitoring system at a regional level which will be able to provide real-time information on ongoing fire events. It is expected that the system will help improve fire fighting and fire management possibilities on a regional scale.

In general it can be noted that the Community is an active member of the international donor community in assisting the government of Indonesia in advancing solutions to the fire problems aggravated by the EL Nino effect.