印度尼西亚罢工,计划发展热带雨林

AS IT IS 2016-09-21 Indonesia Strikes Down Plans for Development in Rainforest 印度尼西亚罢工,计划发展热带雨林

Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem¹ is one of the few places where tigers, orangutans, elephants and rhinoceros² all live in the wild.

But there has been talk of possible development of the area for geothermal energy -- heat that comes from the Earth.

Wildlife activists³ are worried about the plan.

Rudi Putra is an adviser⁴ at the Leuser Conservation Forum⁵.

He asked, “Why do they want to build it inside Aceh’s best remaining forest?” He believes that if the plan is approved, the area “will lose many, many animals.”

The Leuser ecosystem is in Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province. Last month, the provincial⁶ governor asked the central government to change zoning laws for 8,000 hectares of the ecosystem to permit geothermal exploration.

Under the plan, a Turkish company would explore part of the 800,000 hectare Gunnung Leuser National Park. The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared the park a World Heritage site.

The re-zoning request was structured to help Indonesian President Joko Widodo. He has promised to add 35,000 Megawatts (MW) of electricity to Indonesia’s energy grid⁷ by 2020. The plan is designed to increase renewable energy production.

But environmentalists worry that such a development would start a series of events leading to Leuser’s collapse⁸. Once the destruction is started, they say, officials would be powerless to stop it.

Farwiza Farhan leads a group called Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh. She says “anywhere you put roads, destruction follows.” She says timber companies and small farmers used the roads to gain entry to forests, leading to environmental destruction.

“Right now it is geothermal, but what’s next? Even now they can’t protect Leuser,” she said.

Federal laws for protecting wildlife are in place. But in recent years, illegal development and logging has been a problem. Some observers say the ecosystem is shrinking by about 5,500 hectares a year.

In Sumatra, logging and land development for farming has destroyed almost one fourth of the forests since 2000.

Recently, the Indonesian environment ministry⁹ ruled on the Aceh provincial government’s plan.

The environmental group Mongabay says the ministry denied the request. The group said it learned about the decision last week during a meeting of the International Union for Conservation and Natural Resources (IUCN) in Hawaii.

The minister’s director for protected areas told Mongabay that the minister received the proposal. But “the result was disagreement with the rezoning, so that’s that. [The plan] stops there,” he said.

Words in This Story

ecosystem – n. everything that exists in a particular environment, including living things -- such as plants and animals -- and things that are not living -- such as rocks, soil, sunlight and water

geothermal – adj. of, relating to, or using the natural heat produced inside the Earth

zoning – n. a system of rules used to control where businesses and homes are built in a city or town

site – n. the place where something (such as a building) is, was or will be located

grid – n. a network of electrical wires and equipment that supplies electricity to a large area

timber – n. trees that are grown in order to produce wood

log – v. to cut down trees in an area for wood

1 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

2 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

5 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

6 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

7 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

8 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

9 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。