Project no. 1 NATIONAL (Environment)

All of Indonesia's forest concession holders will have to obtain a government-approved certificate of sustainable forest management if they want to continue operating, under a December 2001 ruling by President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

"The president decided that all forest concessions be reviewed and they should get a certificate of sustainable forest management," said Forestry Minister Muhammad Prakosa.
He added that the review and the issuance of the certificates would be by an independent institution and cited the Indonesian Ecolabelling Agency as an example.

Prakosa said that all forest concessionaires were expected to have the certificate by 2003 and the president had asked that the rules be implemented "firmly". He gave no further details, including what the requirements were for obtaining the certificate.

There are currently some 375 forest concessionaires in operation across the country.

Indonesia, home to some 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest cover, saw years of "rapacious deforestation" under former dictator Suharto, according to a report released this year by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency.

The World Bank has said Indonesian forests were reduced by an annual average of some 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) between 1985 and 1997. By December 1999, Indonesia had only some 20 million hectares (49.4 million acres) of forests left.

Project no 2 BUNAKAN (Environment)

The establishment of the Bunakan National Marine Park in Northern Sulawesi. The local communities on Bunaken are involved. Contact is Dr Mark Erdmann who currently lives there.