Press release - January 29, 2004
Greenpeace flagship the 'SV Rainbow Warrior' sailed out of Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port today with national NGO and media representatives, to visit areas of environmental concern in the Indonesian region. The 'SV Rainbow Warrior' set sail after spending nine days in Jakarta at the invitation of the Indonesian Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim and local NGO environmental organisations.
Greenpeace representatives have spent their time in Jakarta
working in close collaboration with local NGOs such as WALHI
identifying key areas of environmental and biodiversity concern to
Indonesia.
"It is great to be continuing our work with Indonesian NGOs in
order to raise awareness to the environmental crisis facing this
region," said Stephen Campbell of Greenpeace. "Greenpeace has
wrapped up roundtable talks with government officials, politicians,
NGOs, University students and the diplomatic and donor communities
over the past few days. We are extremely pleased with our
collaboration and with the information that we have gathered
regarding the environmental crisis facing Indonesia."
Longgena Ginting, Executive Director of local NGO WALHI, said he
hopes that the collaboration established with Greenpeace will
draw
international attention to the plight of forests in Indonesia
and
highlight the issue of illegal logging in his country.
"Indonesia is facing real environmental problems and these will
not be effectively tackled without international pressure. The
Indonesian Government also needs to take concrete steps in (the
area of) forest reform and implement international laws on the
environment," he said.
The 'SV Rainbow Warrior' is likely to be at sea for the coming
10 days. The ship has been gathering information on environmental
issues in the region in the lead up to the Summit for Life on
Earth, the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia next month.