Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Indonesian government, in an ongoing attempt to extort wealth from the civilized world, has moved on from eco-terrorism to a particularly vile form of biological warfare, the withholding critical samples of the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus. Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and their Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari have refused to release any samples of H5N1 until Indonesia is guaranteed “compensation” from the Developed Nations and the pharmaceutical industry.

Yudhoyono and Supari have forewarned the World Health Organization (WHO) that no samples of Indonesian H5N1 will be provided to anyone for vaccine creation unless their demands are met. These demands include drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG to provide Indonesia with unlimited free pandemic-flu shots and pay for the construction of vaccine plants in Indonesia.

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Indonesia is demanding to be paid $5-$20 USD per hectare not to destroy its remaining forests, for the first time giving an monetary figure that they want extort from the world’s wealthier and more environmental conscious countries. Indonesia wants “big emitters” such as the United States and the European Union to pay the country to preserve its pristine rainforests.

We will ask for a compensation of $5-20 per hectare. It’s not fixed; it is open to negotiation

– Rachmat Witoelar
Indonesian Environment Minister

With a total forested area of 91 million ha (225 million acres), Indonesia could receive as much as $US1.8 billion in blackmail (greenmail?) for preserving its forests under the proposal. Indonesia will also attempt to extort a fixed price for other forms of biodiversity, including coral reefs.

So far we have not received anything for what we have done Now that there is a price tag for preservation, the amount of money we get will increase multifold.

— Rachmat Witoelar

Asking the “big emitters” to agree to the environmental extortion is made even more intolerable by the fact that Indonesia is one of the world’s top three carbon emitters according to a report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s development arm.