Environment.web.id

Bali’s governor Made Mangku Pastika should be commended for his forward thinking policies on environmental conservation by implementing a fully wired e-government that he plans to have running within two years. Not only will the new system be more efficient he says, but it will also save in unneccessary waste of paper & cut cost. “In two years, everything should be (inter-connected) online, that’s my target,” he said during a meeting with the executives of the local chapter of Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). “There is no need to conduct nonurgent meetings and searching for specific data should no longer take a long time.”

In a recent article by Wasti Atmodjo from Bali Access Online:

Pastika expressed his concern over the large volume of paper consumed in the administration’s daily operations. “Eventually, heaps upon heaps of decaying paper will be left abandoned somewhere,” he said.

He pointed out that producing the province’s annual budget was one activity that consumed a staggering amount of paper. “The budget ends up being a very thick volume and every time a revision is made, a new version is printed and distributed to each and every official and legislator involved in the deliberation process. What a waste of paper,” he said.

Pastika envisions that in the near future the agencies and divisions will be interconnected through an integrated information technology infrastructure.

“We will have a paperless environment. We will be able to save a lot of money because we won’t have to buy so many office supplies,” he said.

AJI will hold its national congress in Bali on Thursday. In conjunction with the gathering, a seminar on new media will be organized featuring speakers from Indonesia’s largest mass media.

source: access bali online

Urgent Warning from Island’s Government that Unregulated Development May be Irreparably Destroying Bali’s Environment

(Bali Discovery Tours – 12/21/2008) Bali’s provincial government has begun sounding warning alarms due to the degradation of the island’s natural environment over the past decade. In an article published in Kompas, the erosion of Bali’s shore line now approaches 20%, 55,000 hectares of land mass are considered in a critical state and the island’s average temperature has increased to 33 degree Celsius. According to that report, much of the blame for the rapid decline in Bali’s natural environment is being laid at the door of the Island’s tourism industry.

The head of the Bali Environmental Agency, Gede Putu Wardana, confirmed the government’s growing concern over the environment, and said a long-term environmental protection plan stretching to 2050 is now being formulated.

According to Wardana, in the shorter term of 2009 to 2014 there are plans to replant Bali’s forests, stop the erosion of shorelines and re-green critical water-absorbent green zones.

Data provided by the Director General of Water Resources the air temperature in November 2008 reached 22-33 degrees Celsius. Previous to that, the average temperature ranges between 28-30 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, water levels are now 50 centimeters higher on almost all beaches of Bali.

The fast-declining condition of Bali’s environment is also underlined by the fact that the 51.950 kilometers of eroded shore line recorded in 1987 has now grown to 91.070 kilometers or approximately 20% of Bali’s entire shoreline (436.5 kilometers). At the same time, officials report that the intrusion of sea water into the water table has become a major concern in many areas of the island.

A local activist from Conservation International Indonesia, Made Iwan Dewantama, has characterized the soon-to-be-announced timetable for preventing further environmental degradation as coming too late. He points to the many environmental and green conferences held in Bali, including the U.N. Climate Change Conference held in December 2007, as demonstrating that Bali has done little for the environment despite the dire warnings sounded during numerous conference held at the Island’s conventions centers.
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