Sambutan saat Menerima Global Home Tree Award yang dibacakan Konsul Jenderal RI di Los Angeles

Dear friends of the earth, and friends of the forests,

First of all, my heartfelt congratulations to James Cameron for his inspiring and timely film "Avatar", which has fueled global awareness about the imperative to protect our forests - the lungs of the earth.

This of course is an issue that is of enormous importance to Indonesia as a tropical rainforest nation.

The activities of the human species in the last 200 years have caused climate change, which in turn has threatened the well-being of humanity and the future of planet earth. There is no man-made machine that can reabsorb the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The only thing that can do this is the tree and Indonesia has plenty of them in our tropical rainforests.

That is why my Government has strongly committed to a policy a sustainable forestry development, which includes reforestation, reduced deforestation, fighting illegal loggers, preventing forest fires and an ambitious tree planting campaign to plan 1 billion - not 1 million, but 1 billion trees every year.

We do this because we know we have the moral responsibility to preserve our "home tree", upon which hangs the fate of our planet.

But rainforest nations cannot do this alone. The developed industrial countries must also do their part to help us to achieve sustainable forestry while also promoting socio economic needs of rainforest countries. Forestry issues must also be an integral part of the new global consensus on climate change that is still being arduously negotiated under the UN Conference on Climate Change.

We cannot afford to fail to protect our forests.

After all, we all share the same planet, we all share a common destiny, and we are all Na''''vi !

Finally, I thank you for the Avatar Home Tree award, which I accept with gratitude on behalf of the people of Indonesia.



Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono