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Presidential decree preserves Lake Toba area in Indonesia.
On March 19, 1999, Indonesian President B.J. Habibie made a historic
announcement that will contribute substantially to the sustainability of the
US-AEP State Environmental Initiative (SEI) "sister lakes" project between
the state of Vermont and Indonesia. President Habibie�s decision was made in
response to a 40-page paper submitted by the Lake Toba Historical Foundation
(LTHF) on the impact of the large paper mill, Indorayon, on Lake Toba. Among
the key points of President Habibie�s announcement are the following:
- The Lake Toba area has been declared by presidential decree to be a
special zone for ecotourism, art, and culture.
- LTHF will be a key member of the authority managing the area.
- Polluting industry will no longer be allowed in the area. Indorayon
will be temporarily closed pending the completion of an independent audit;
LTHF will act as the steering committee for the audit.
- The Lake Toba area will be proposed to the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a possible World Heritage
site. World Heritage is a program which preserves and protects threatened
natural and cultural areas worldwide.
LTHF is looking forward to using this great opportunity to further the
conservation of the Lake Toba area with the continued collaboration of their
Vermont counterparts. [Note: the SEI program is administered by the Council
of State Governments.]
New on the
US-AEP website: an easier-to-use home page!
US-AEP�s Communications team is pleased to announce the installation of a
more user-friendly home page on US-AEP�s website. The What�s New section has
been revised to make it easier for visitors to see at a glance what has been
added to the website that week. In addition, Export Link will now be
featured on the home page for faster access. Country Sites, a new feature on
the home page, will be launched in May with the Indonesia site; a new
country site will be added each month. Check out our new appearance at
https://www.usaep.org
NGO-Business partner continues new projects in India.
The Centre for Resource Education (CRE) in Hyderabad, India, is one of
more than a dozen nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have taken a
successful US-AEP NGO-Business Environmental Partnership project and pushed
itself, the community, and an ever-expanding number of other NGOs and
businesses with new ideas and projects. CRE began as a technical resource to
NGO Peddireddy Thimma Reddy Farm Foundation�s project for increasing mango
production by reducing processing wastes in 1996-97, resulting in an over 90
percent reduction in solid waste from the mango processing plants. In
1997-98, CRE applied for its own NGO-Business grant to survey timber and
pulp industries in Hyderabad and draft a policy paper exploring the
technical and economic viability of source reduction and waste conversion.
CRE is now using that experience on a separately funded collaboration with
the Jeedimetla Industrial Association in Hyderabad, India, in which they
will conduct waste auditing at 32 chemical, pharmaceutical, and drug
industries. Another project, funded by the State Pollution Control Board, is
for CRE and the Society for Development Alternatives in New Delhi--another
NGO-Business grantee--to prepare a one-day workshop to present findings
about the impact of pollution on surface and groundwater by the
electroplating and galvanizing industries in the Jeedimetla industrial zone.
Continuing to look for new ways to work with industry to lessen the
pollution impact on the environment, CRE is using the knowledge gained from
their experience with the NGO-Business Environmental Partnership, which is
administered by The Asia Foundation.
US-AEP/Manila helps Reno firm secure technology sale.
Baldwin Environmental, Inc. of Reno, Nevada, recently sold $30,000 worth
of computerized stack sampling systems to San Miguel Corporation in the
Philippines through assistance from US-AEP�s Office of Technology
Cooperation in Manila. Alan DiStefano, vice president for sales and
marketing at Baldwin, participated in a Department of Commerce trade mission
in September 1998. During the mission, US-AEP/Manila arranged meeting for
Mr. DiStefano with Industramach, Inc., a local distributor of anti-pollution
control and monitoring systems. In January 1999, a distributorship agreement
was signed between the two companies that quickly led to the March 26 sale
of air monitoring equipment to San Miguel.
New address
for Sri Lanka Office of Technology Cooperation.
The US-AEP Office of Technology Cooperation in Sri Lanka has recently
moved. The new address is:
44 Galle Road
Colombo-3, Sri Lanka
Tel: 94-1-472855, Fax: 94-1-472850/472860
Until a new e-mail connection is made, the old e-mail address
usaep@sri.lanka.net can be used.
Welcome and
farewell.
The Office of Technology Cooperation in Sri Lanka has a new technology
representative, Ananda Mallawatantri. Ananda has a Ph.D. in
Environmental Soil Science from Washington State University and has been an
administrator in the Sri Lankan government and a research scientist with the
University of Minnesota in addition to working in the private sector. Ananda
can be reached at the above address for the Sri Lanka office.
The CTEM office in Thailand has added a new staff member, Pimpan
Watanasiriroch. Pimpan will be working half-time for CTEM and half-time
for the Greening of Industry Network-Asia, and will be located in the CTEM
offices at Chulalongkorn University. A recent graduate of Chulalongkorn
University, Pimpan has worked previously for the Department of Export
Promotion at the Thai Ministry of Commerce. She can be contacted at
662-218-8446.
And the Environmental Technology Network for Asia (ETNA) has a new
operations and research associate, Kim Phan. Kim graduated from
Allegheny College in 1997 with a BA in Political Science. She has also
studied in Vietnam through the School of International Training, focusing on
environmental issues. Previously she worked as a journalist in Orange
County, California. Kim can be reached by phone at 202-835-0333, x 124, or
by e-mail at
kphan@usaep.org.
We welcome the new personnel to the US-AEP family.
Two members of the US-AEP team have left the program. Sonia Armstrong,
who had been with US-AEP almost since inception, resigned as of March 26.
She and her husband Paul have moved to the Philippines. And Eun-Hee Rim,
administrative assistant at the US-AEP/Korea Office of Technology
Cooperation for the past three years, has left her position as of March 31.
She is planning to move to the U.S. in April. We wish both of them luck for
the future! |
