By: Masayu Yulien Vinanda and Cendera Rizky
Jakarta (30/04) –The world’s leading international conference Business for the Environment (B4E) Global Summit, which took place in Indonesia has produced an important environmental commitment through the “B4E 2011 BusinessDeclaration”. The commitment of business actors, government representatives, and civil society as the participants of the conference was declared in front of Indonesian Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa on Friday (29/04) at Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta.
The document represents an important step of the key stakeholders to reduce emissions by 26 percent to 41 percent in 2020.
“Green economy has to be the solution for all business players in order to achieve a balance that allows developmentwhile at the same time reducing environmental risk. The principle of green economy is to avoid the over exploitation of our natural resources,"" The Minister said in his keynote speech.
The declaration covers six commitments: (1) support Zero Net Deforestation by 2020 by phasing out products coming from deforestation of ecologically important forests, (2) reduce our resourceintensity by investing heavily in energy and resource efficency programs, and in programs to redesign productsand supply chains to achieve a more transformative change, (3) promote sustainable business practices throughout the supply chains, (4) support programs which protect areas of high biodiversity and natural carbon storage, (5) invest in and promote sustainable urban planning and integrated land-use management, and (6) intensively promote more sustainable consumption patterns in Indonesia.
The CEO of WWF-Indonesia, Dr. Efransjah hailed those six environmental commitments. According to him, the international conference for dialogue and business-driven action for the environment, B4E, has produced a “road map” which is essential for sustainable development, green economy, and sustainable business practices, both in Indonesia and global scope.

Earlier, on the first day of B4E Global Summit 2011, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono highlighted the green economy focusing on ""pro-poor, pro-green, pro-growth, pro-business, and pro-environmment."" He also announced the Government’s plans to to promote the expansion of plantations and other economic activities in the degraded land or low carbon areas.
Following up the commitment of the President, WWF will actively assist the Indonesian Government to identify 30 million hectares of degraded land to secure growth of palm oil and forestry products, for example by mapping out degraded land in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Papua, and developing carbon assesment using ""LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology.""
Through ""The Heart of Borneo Green Business Network"" which was launched in early January, WWF also calls on business community to stop doing expansion in the ecologically important forest area, and switch to develop more productive use of already- degraded land.
The B4E was jointly organized by the Ministry of Environment, BKPM, WWF, and Chamber of Commerce and Global Initiatives. The event was supported by a number of partners, including Garuda Indonesia, GE, Hitachi, Nestle, Philips and Telkomsel, AG Networks, APRIL, BMW, Gajah Tunggal, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (April).