Prince to reveal rainforest plan

The heir to the throne waves to crowds outside a mosque in Jakarta

The Prince of Wales has visited a mosque in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on the final leg of his 10-day tour of Asia.

He met Islamic leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque after flying in from Brunei without his wife, who has returned to Britain for other engagements.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall also spent four days in Japan.

In Indonesia, the prince will visit several rainforest projects and give a presidential lecture on the subject.

Indonesia has some of the world's largest and most important rainforests, but is also one of the world's worst polluters.

Decimated

On Sunday, the prince will visit Harapan Rainforest on the island of Sumatra to learn about a conservation project.

Conservation groups have been replanting trees on the 250,000-acres site, where oil palm and timber plantations have decimated the forests.

On Thursday, Charles will set out draft proposals drawn up by his Prince's Rainforest Project, in a lecture to the Indonesian cabinet.

It is part of an ambitious scheme to save the world's rainforests, details of which he first revealed in Brunei.

Speaking earlier at the University of Brunei Darussalam, in the capital city Bandar Seri Begawan, he said his project was trying to establish how much funding nations need to "reorientate their economies".

The royal couple examine traditional fine silk during their visit to Brunei

He wants countries to view living endangered trees to be more valuable to their economies than dead ones.

He said: "My project is working... to determine how much funding the rainforest countries need to reorientate their economies so that the trees are really worth more alive than dead.

"To show how this funding can be provided by the developed world; and to help bring forward ways in which the funding would be used in an equitable way by the rainforest nations."

The project, which was launched last year, aims to develop joint public-private schemes to tackle deforestation.

'Climate crunch'

In Tokyo the prince gave a speech warning governments not to let concerns with the global "credit crunch" distract them from the growing problem of "climate crunch".

During his visit to Brunei, the prince travelled by helicopter with the country's crown prince, Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah, to Simpan Badas forestry to learn about the Heart of Borneo initiative.

The royals were presented with garlands by the Gurkhas

The project aims to preserve 220,000 square km (85,000 square miles) of the rainforest.

The states of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia are working together to safeguard one of the most important areas of biodiversity in the world.

The prince planted the 1,000th Tulong tree in a clearing that was being re-stocked after being destroyed by fire.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version