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Indonesia's Last Great Rainforest Tipped for Geothermal Development

by Cory Rogers

   ACEH, INDONESIA --

   The Leuser Ecosystem in Indonesia's westernmost Aceh province is one of
   the few places on Earth where tigers, orangutans, elephants and rhinos
   coexist in the wild.

   Soon, however, these creatures may have to make way for a new addition
   to their habitat - geothermal energy - a prospect that has
   conservationists wringing their hands.

   "Why do they want to build it inside Aceh's best remaining forest?"
   asked Rudi Putra, adviser with the Leuser Conservation Forum.

   In late August, Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah penned a letter to the
   central government asking to re-zone 8,000-hectares of the ecosystem
   for geothermal exploration.

   The plan, undertaken in partnership with PT Hitay Panas Holdings - a
   Turkish company run by one of Turkey's richest men - targets a core
   zone of the 800,000-hectare Leuser National Park - a UNESCO World
   Heritage site at the heart of the 2.8 million-hectare ecosystem.

   The government is already embroiled in a class-action lawsuit against a
   pending 2013 provincial spatial plan that seeks to leave Leuser open
   for development - a clear violation of national-level protections.

   The re-zoning request was framed as an assist to President Joko Widodo,
   who has pledged to add 35,000 MW of electricity to Indonesia's skimpy
   energy grid by 2020, and increase the percentage of renewables in the
   mix.

   Environmentalists, however, worry such development will start a chain
   reaction leading to Leuser's collapse - one authorities will be
   powerless to stop.

   "Anywhere you put roads, destruction follows," Farwiza Farhan,
   chairperson of the Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh NGO (HaKA)
   said, adding that timber interests and small-time farmers used them to
   exploit forests previously inaccessible, leading to habitat loss.

   "Right now it is geothermal, but what's next? Even now they [the
   authorities] can't protect Leuser," she said.

   Despite federal conservation laws, recent decades have seen a
   proliferation of illegal encroachment and logging whittle Leuser down
   by about 5,500 hectares a year.

   In Sumatra as a whole, logging and conversion for agriculture has
   toppled nearly a quarter of the forests since 2000.

   Crown jewel

   The Aceh government's geothermal plans focus on 8,000 hectares in the
   Kappi Plateau, a 150,000-hectare expanse considered Leuser's most
   indispensable landscape.

   "Kappi contains some of the best forests remaining in the world," said
   Rudi Putra, founder of the Leuser Conservation Forum.

   The area's many salt lakes and fruit-bearing trees, he added, made it
   an ideal habitat for creatures large and small. Some 200 Sumatran
   elephants occupy the plateau - about 10 percent of the world's
   remaining population - that would be imperiled should the geothermal
   plans go through.

   "If the geothermal is contracted in the area, we will lose many, many
   animals," he said. "We will lose not only 8,000 hectares, but I think
   we'll end up losing the whole plateau."

   By allowing farmers and loggers to strip the forest with relative
   impunity, it was the road-building, he stressed, that would deliver the
   death blow.

   Rudi Putra supervises a forest restoration team cutting down a palm oil
   tree in the Leuser Ecosystem, Indonesia. (Goldman Environmental Prize)

   Wrong way forward?

   Indonesia sits astride 40 percent of the world's geothermal potential,
   with half found on the island of Sumatra alone.

   According to Rudi, it is unclear why, on an island with such abundant
   geothermal potential, a protected zone as precious as Kappi would be
   targeted.

   "Maybe the government allocated the area to one company, and another
   area to another company, so that's why the target for this company
   [Hitay] is the Kappi Plateau," Rudi said.

   "The government could say, 'no, you cannot explore this area because
   it's in the core of the national park'," he said. "I don't know why the
   government hasn't talked like this."

   Attempts to reach Hitay for clarification on the matter were
   unsuccessful.

   According to Farhan, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurabaya,
   who will have final say over the rezoning request, has a good track
   record in her nearly three years in office.

   "So far, the [environment and forestry] minister [Siti Nurabaya] has
   been making good moves in trying to clean up the permit system and
   reduce deforestation and forest fires, in tackling the big problems,"
   she said. "But I can't really tell where she stands on this issue."

   The ministry has not yet indicated when it might respond.

   According to Rudi, micro-hydro energy offers a better solution to the
   province's energy needs. Unlike geothermal - which would require locals
   to pay for use - micro-hydro plants would be free, "and the
   environmental impact would be less," he said.

   "We are not against geothermal," Rudi said, "but there are so many
   other options, and the priority should be in areas outside the Kappi
   plateau."

   "There is no plateau like it left in Sumatra, so if we lose Kappi, it
   means we have lost the last of Sumatra's richest forests," he added.