1 October 2010 - Santa Monica, CA. While activities for President Obama’s upcoming November trip to Indonesia are being planned, Board members of the Orang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF) are recommending to White House and Indonesian Presidential advisors that the pair of presidents participate in a televised tree-planting ceremony to highlight the importance of Indonesia’s role in nurturing the “lungs of the earth.”  OURF President Gary Shapiro stated that, “forests are not only habitat for Indonesia’s great red apes, but vital ecosystems that sustain all life on earth, including humanity across the globe.”  The symbolic gesture of planting trees somewhere during President Obama’s visit to Indonesia would complement the recently announced US-Indonesian Comprehensive Partnership which encompasses bilateral activities in education, trade and the environment.

President Obama spent approximately four years in Indonesia in his youth during which time he attended a public grade school in Central Jakarta. A trip by the president to the school has been discussed as a possible stop during this twice postponed trip to the largest country of Muslims in the world. Planting a tree at the school would enable the president to address the issues of education and environment, cornerstones of the US-Indonesian Comprehensive Partnership. Tree-planting could take place in almost any venue during Obama’s visit, even if a trip to the school was not part of his itinerary.

Indonesia has embraced tree-planting as a national and regional celebration for many years. There is a national tree-planting month and a national tree-planting day. Governors in the various provinces of Indonesia also hold tree-planting events as a way to enroll the public in increasing the number of trees in urban and rural areas. Such events are educational in that they focus attention on the numerous benefits of trees including sequestering carbon dioxide and providing oxygen, increasing rainfall, stabilizing soil, providing shade, food and timber, as well as habitat for numerous creatures, including the arboreal orangutan. Indonesia’s own tree-planting agenda is also part of the United Nation’s Billion Tree Campaign.

Nevertheless, Indonesia’s intention to grow its forests has been challenged by global and regional economic forces promoting large scale deforestation for estate plantations.  Illegal logging and mining and improper management of forest regions has also contributed to the emissions of carbon into the atmosphere. Such emissions are implicated in global warming. When emissions are taken into account, Indonesia has the dubious distinction of being a global leader in the rate of deforestation, according to the World Bank. Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could also capitalize on the photo opportunity to highlight measures taken by Indonesia to curb deforestation and to reduce emissions of global greenhouse gases. OURF encourages both Indonesia and the United States to add a tree-planting ceremony during President Obama’s visit to symbolize the planting of the seeds and the beginning of a strong and lasting US-Indonesian Comprehensive Partnership.

OURF supports tree-planting and environmental education in Sumatra that enables local Indonesians to understand and care about the rainforest ecosystem that sustains them and the endangered wild orangutans. OURF promotes Orangutan Caring Week (Nov 7-13). On Sumatra, fewer than 6,600 orangutans remain in scattered populations increasingly becoming fragmented by deforestation. While larger populations remain on the island of Borneo, the species is under constant threat of extinction as large areas of forest are converted to agricultural use. For more information on OURF and its programs, visit www.orangutanrepublik.org . 

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