The World's Biggest Ecological Disaster
THE 1-million-hectare peat land development project has definitely sent disaster to Kalimantan. Begun on January 23, 1996 the mega-project was designed to realize President Suharto's dream of transforming the swamps of Kalimantan into rice-producing areas and make Indonesia self-sufficient in rice. It ended in a painful tragedy: trillions of rupiah were squandered, vast areas of the ecosystem destroyed, thousands of the local population displaced, and thousands more transmigrants left in the lurch. An Integrated Team from several departments and the National Development Planning Board is to begin reviewing this week a plan to redesign and conserve the area that environmentalists have called "the world's biggest ecological disaster". For the time being, the estimated budget is: four times the cost of the original project. TEMPO, which carried an investigative report on the ill-conceived project in its April 12, 1999 issue, revisited the area for another report in December and January.
February 3, 2004
THE heat wave sweeping across Gunung Kidul in Yogyakarta did not bother President Megawati Sukarnoputri at all. Dressed in longsleeved brown batik attire the president sat restfully in front of cabinet ministers and guests busy flapping their hands to drive the heat away. Megawati was present that Wednesday last week for a ceremony of great consequence: the launching of the National Land and Forest Rehabilitation Movement.
The government ai
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