Stephanie Goodwin, senior forest campaigner for Greenpeace Canada in Vancouver
Where are you?
I have been based in a remote 'Climate Defenders Camp' in the
heart of the Kampar Peninsula rainforest in the Riau province of
Sumatra, Indonesia. We are collaborating with the closest
community, Teluk Maranti, on the climate defenders camp.
Why are you in Indonesia?
I here in the heart of the rainforest to bring an urgent message
to Stephen Harper and other world leaders before the Copenhagen
Climate Summit that ending tropical deforestation is a critical and
immediate step that must be taken to combat global runaway climate
change.
Indonesia is the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, after the
US and China. Eighty percent of Indonesia's emissions come from
deforestation, which demonstrates both the problem and the
opportunity available to leaders. Protecting natural forests is
widely regarded as the quickest and most cost-effective way of
combating climate change.
Protecting tropical rainforests is about more than just climate
change. Indonesia is home to 10-15% of all known species of
plants, mammals and birds. Many of these animals, however, are on
the brink of extinction, including the orangutan and the critically
endangered Sumatran Tiger, whose numbers are estimated at
400-500.
What are you hoping to contribute?
Palm oil and pulp from Indonesian rainforests are shipped daily
all over the world to end up on supermarket shelves in our food,
cosmetics, and paper products. By being here in the Indonesian
rainforest, participating in this peaceful direct action aimed at
Asia Pulp and Paper, I hope to help shine a spotlight on tropical
rainforest destruction. Its a global issue for all people and our
leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to take decisive
action upon next month. It's not simply a local Indonesian
issue.
What is your experience in forest
issues?
As a senior forest campaigner for Greenpeace in Canada, I helped
Greenpeace secure protection of fifty percent of BC's Great Bear
Rainforest from logging. This landmark agreement is based on the
consensus of governments including First Nations, the conservation
sector and the logging industry, which also included a significant
fund for local First Nations to create diverse economic
opportunities and manage their territories. It is my experience of
the collaboration, moratorium, and ambitious goals from this
groundbreaking agreement and process that I am hoping to bring to
President Yodhoyana and my Indonesian colleagues and friends who
are living at the Climate Defenders Camp.
There must be an immediate moratorium on forest destruction in
Indonesia along with immediate funding for local communities and
respect for indigenous peoples rights.
Do you think you will be
successful?
We are already achieving success in Indonesia. As a result of
direct action by Greenpeace last week protesting illegal peat land
draining and deforestation, the Indonesian government has suspended
logging permits that belong to a major pulp and paper company in
Indonesia, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL).
This is a good first step. Also, President Yodhoyana has stated
that he would be willing to significantly cut greenhouse gas
emissions, mostly coming from forest destruction, if sufficient
funding were in place.
Leaders around the world know we are close to the tipping point
of runaway climate change, an increase of more than 2 degree
Celsius. The solutions are clear: deep emissions reductions by
industrialized countries, a curb in growth by developing nations
and a robust plan to fund an end to tropical deforestation that
begins immediately. The question that remains is whether or not
our leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have the
political will to face down the largest catastrophe our planet has
ever seen. My actions demonstrate that a Canadian will go to
extraordinary lengths to combat climate change globally. It is up
to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to rise to the bar the occasion
and demonstrate the courage and leadership on climate change in
Copenhagen that myself and other Canadians are role modeling for
him.
Who's causing the destruction?
The largest causes of forest destruction in Indonesia are pulp
& paper, palm oil, agriculture and logging. The two largest
pulp/paper and palm oil companies are APP (Asia Pulp and Paper) and
APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited).
They each own one of the world's largest pulp/paper mills in the
world.
Palm oil is now the world's third largest product on the
vegetable oil market. China and India are the largest customers,
followed by Indonesia, EU countries and Malaysia. It is used for
food (KitKat, Pringles), cosmetic products, palm seed cake for
animal feed and energy production.
Any claims by APP or APRIL that they are logging or harvesting
sustainably are incorrect. We have documented their ongoing
destruction in this, one of the most rapidly diminishing tropical
rainforests, on the planet. Paper from Indonesian forests ends up
in photocopy machines and on desks all around the world. It is
mostly purchased by companies in Japan, Malaysia, the US, the EU,
China, and Australia. Recent international customers of APP
include Cartier, Vogue, Lindt, Calvin Klein, and Estee Lauder.
What is the solution?
- An immediate moratorium on rainforest destruction and its full
enforcement (no new incursions on natural forests)
- An Indonesia government commitment to zero deforestation by
2015 and backed by the capacity to make it happen
- Companies restore peatlands that were converted to
plantations
At the climate summit in December, success looks like….
A fair, ambitious and binding deal that:
- Ends tropical deforestation by 2020
- Provides at least $140B USD annually immediately from
industrialized countries to support adaptation, mitigation and
forest protection in the developing world. $42B USD of this annual
sum should be used to end deforestation
- Cuts carbon emissions by at least 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels
in the developed world
- Cuts the growth in carbon emissions by at least 15-30% by 2020
in the developing world
What do you do back in Canada?
I am a senior forest campaigner for Greenpeace Canada in
Vancouver. I work to protect the rainforests of Canada, including
BC's Great Bear Rainforest and Clayoquot Sound, home of the largest
act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. In the Great Bear
Rainforest, I work collaboratively wherever possible with First
Nations, the logging industry and government to create lasting
solutions that support the ecology of the rainforest in addition to
community well-being for First Nations. My work takes me into
community level economic and cultural revitalization projects with
First Nations to sessions with Government Ministers to the
corporate boardrooms of Europe.
What parallels do you draw between
Canada and the destruction you are witnessing in Indonesia?
Regrettably there are many. Clearcutting in Canada's Boreal
Forest has a very large negative effect on our climate. The Boreal
Forest stores more than 186 billion tonnes of carbon in its soils
and trees and protecting large areas of it, particularly in it's
the southern portions, is essential to fight climate change. The
development of the tar sands deforests large areas of the Boreal
Forest to fuel a global addiction to some of the dirtiest fossil
fuels anywhere on the planet. The massive scale of the destruction
in both Sumatra and the tar sands are equally stunning.
And then there is of course the similarities of the two
governments deploying police to shut down peaceful protests in
order to protect the private corporate interests of the big oil and
logging companies that are creating the climate havoc.
What is the role of peaceful direct
action in saving the planet?
Greenpeace's mission is to expose environmental problems using
the founding principles of bearing witness and non-violence. Great
leaders and great change has happened when individuals have gone to
great risk to peacefully expose what where we as humans must
change. It is critical that we model the peaceful and just
approaches that we want our leaders to take to create a better
planet.