Reuters
JAKARTA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia is losing tonnes of crop
production each year and its fish stock is dwindling as a result of
global warming, a UN report said on Tuesday, putting the greatest
pressure on the nation's poor.
Millions of poor Indonesians will suffer loss of livelihoods,
undermining the government's efforts to fight poverty, the report by
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said.
The
report was launched ahead of the UN climate change talks next week on
the tourist island of Bali, where delegates from 189 countries will
hammer out a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, a pact against global
warming which runs out in 2012.
Shifting weather patterns have
made it increasingly difficult for Indonesian farmers to decide when to
plant their crops, and erratic droughts and rainfall have led to crop
failures, the report said.
The report quoted a study by a local
research institute which said that Indonesia had lost 300,000 tonnes of
crop production every year between 1992-2000, three times the annual
loss in the previous decade.
Millions of fishermen are facing harsher weather conditions, while dwindling fish stocks affect their income.
Indonesia's 40 million poor, including farmers and fishermen, will be
the worst affected due to threats including rising sea levels,
prolonged droughts and tropical cyclones, the report said.
"No
one can escape from climate change. But the effects will be felt more
acutely by the poorest people, who are living in the most marginal
areas that are vulnerable to drought, for example, or to floods and
landslide," the report said.
"Already one of the world's most
disaster-prone countries, Indonesia faces increased exposure to
droughts, floods and storms as well as disruption in agricultural
production," the UNDP said in a press statement.
Developed
countries are responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions
which cause global warming, said UNDP's Country Director Hakan Bjorkman
at the launch of the report.
"The poor walk the earth with very
light carbon footprint," Bjorkman said, but "they are set to suffer the
most from the actions of a few." (Reporting by Adhityani Arga; editing
by Sara Webb and Sanjeev Miglani)
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