[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia Natural Resource Network formed

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Flood, landslide survivors face food shortages

The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Natural resource network formed

UBUD, Bali: Scientists set up Friday a network to promote a better 
understanding of common property rights, which they said would work to reducing rural 
poverty, land conflicts and environmental degradation.

The experts, who were attending the International Association for the Study 
of Common Property's 11th Biannual Conference in Ubud, announced the launch of 
the Indonesia Common Property Network.

The network will be made up of local and expatriate delegates with a 
knowledge of resource management in Indonesia, including water rights expert Bryan 
Burns and forestry expert Sandra Wentzel.

"We want to bridge communication between so many institutions that have been 
in involved in studies on community-based natural resource management, which 
is the core issue of common property studies, to make it applicable and 
understandable for the prosperity of the people," said the network's working group 
coordinator, Aceng Hidayat.

"The government has failed in managing our natural resources by applying only 
an economic approach -- exploitation -- that downplays communities' rights to 
commonly manage the environment. This is not an optimum approach that fails 
to improve the people's welfare," he said.

Aceng said the network planned to establish relationships with the 
government, businesses and communities to better manage the country's abundant natural 
resources.

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The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Flood, landslide survivors face food shortages

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Sinjai

Isolated residents of South Sulawesi's Sinjai regency, devastated by floods 
and landslides Tuesday, are facing dwindling food stocks with aid unable to 
reach the area.

The head of the disaster response team in Sinjai, Second Lt. Muldiono, said 
Friday the inhabitants of Gantarang village in Central Sinjai district needed 
food aid but supplies were unable to reach the area because the access roads 
had been cut off in the natural disaster.

"All they have to eat are bananas and tubers. Their rice stocks have already 
run out," Muldiono said.

As of Friday, all of the roads leading to the area remained either underwater 
or buried beneath landslides.

The only way to reach the area is by air, but bad weather and heavy rains 
have prevented authorities from exercising this option.

The two main roads to Gantarang from Gowa regency and Sinjai city were buried 
in the landslides at 43 separate points, with the mud at some areas reaching 
a height of five meters.

Work on clearing the roads has been hampered by bad weather and the lack of 
heavy equipment, with workers having to rely on simple hand-tools.

As of Friday, the death toll from the disaster had climbed past 200 with 63 
people still listed as missing. More than 3,400 people were displaced in five 
regencies -- Bantaeng, Bone, Bulukumba, Jeneponto and Sinjai. More than 1,000 
people in Sinjai were displaced, according to information from the regency's 
disaster response task force.

Meanwhile, three other locations isolated by the floods and landslides have 
received assistance transported by air. Authorities plan to deliver more aid 
Saturday.

Officials also are having trouble delivering enough aid for victims in the 
area around Sinjai city itself.

Dozens of victims gathered at a disaster command post Friday looking for 
food, saying all of their supplies were lost in the floods.

"Since the floods we haven't been able to make our own meals because we lost 
all of our food to the waters. Fortunately we have gotten some help from 
neighbors who were able to save some of their stocks," said a resident of 
Mattoangin hamlet.

The coordinator of the Sinjai disaster relief task force, Lt. Col. Soetyarso, 
acknowledged there were some difficulties in aid distribution.

He also said his team was having trouble establishing just how many people 
were affected by the disaster, because many victims had moved in with relatives 
rather than going to the evacuation centers set up by the task force.

In a related development, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said in Jakarta on 
Friday the government would find the money in the state budget to pay for disaster 
relief work in South Sulawesi.

"The current state budget allocates Rp 500 billion (US$53.4 million) in 
disaster funds, and most of that was used for the Yogyakarta earthquake. But we 
will take money from other posts, such as the Social Services Ministry or the 
Public Works Ministry. We do not have to get House approval for that," he said.

Kalla also said he was not overly concerned by reports of food shortages in 
the affected regions, saying it was most likely a problem of distribution.

"Sinjai, Bone and Bulukumba are food producers, so I'm not worried. The 
problem is perhaps in the distribution, which is not yet up and running properly 
because they are still focusing on searching for victims," he said.

With additional reporting by Tony Hotland in Jakarta.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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