Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

COLLAGES OF BETTERMENT 209capabilities to collate and integrate information fromthe disparate sources. The integration of socio-economicinformation with environmental parameters began tobe addressed with the development of environmentalstatistics by the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) inIndonesia and the National Statistical CoordinationBoard (NSCB) and National Statistics Office (NSO) inthe Philippines. BPS began publishing EnvironmentalStatistics Indonesia annually in 1982 while the NSCBissues the Philippines Compendium of EnvironmentStatistics (PCES) once every two years. The PCES was ajoint effort of the NSCB and other agencies representedin the six inter-agency technical working groups thatwere established to institutionalize environment statisticsin the Philippines. The formulation of the PhilippineFramework for the Development of Environment Statistics(PFDES) was undertaken to solve the inadequacy in thecollection and compilation of environment statistics.Although the approach undertaken to develop theseenvironmental statistics was rather conventional innature, it nevertheless takes advantage of existinginfrastructure and requires minimal new investment.Compared to the green accounting system describedabove, environmental statistics are often less integrativein the sense that they do not integrate nature-societyparameters.Important as environmental statistics may be fordecision-making, their utility is limited to the provisionof facts and figures. Absent in these environmentalstatistics publications are analyses of the interactionbetween human activities and environmental conditions.State-of-the-Environment Reporting (SoER) is theway many governments typically report on trends inbiophysical environmental parameters in relation tosocioeconomic indicators. This narrative reporting toolis used worldwide to describe human activities thatexert pressures on the environment, changing the qualityand quantity (the state) of natural resources. Humanmanagement responses to the changes include any formof organized behaviour that seeks to reduce, prevent orameliorate undesirable changes. Indonesia’s first Stateof the Environment Report was released in 2003 by theMinistry of Environment (KLH) in cooperation withthe Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).The aim of producing this document was to providea yearly overview of environmental conditions andsustainable development in Indonesia.Apart from government initiatives, internationalorganizations and civil society are also actively involvedin developing other forms of SoE reports. The WorldBank’s Environment Monitor series is a periodicreporting system that presents thematic reports whichvary among different years. Examples of past reportsinclude Philippine Environment Monitor 2000: GeneralEnvironment Trends and Indonesia EnvironmentMonitor 2003: Pollution Reduction. The WorldBank has also engaged in a more extensive SoE-typeanalysis of the prospect of sustainability in Indonesiawith the publication of Indonesia Environment andDevelopment Report 1994. In addition there are alsosnapshot and non-periodic SoE reports such as theCountry Environment Analysis for the Philippines 2005prepared by the Asian Development Bank. Apart fromthese official environmental reports, NGOs in bothcountries have also developed numerous unofficial SoEstatistics and sector profile indicators (for example, onbiodiversity, energy and human settlements), whichmay not necessarily tally with official figures.Both in Indonesia and the Philippines, the most policyrelevantindicator system with bearing on sustainability isthe Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Indicators.Governments globally have to abide by the MillenniumDeclaration, which is a commitment amongst a largenumber of developing and developed countries toachieve certain social development objectives. TheDeclaration’s operational targets and goals are madeexplicit in the MDG. Indonesia and Philippines, alongwith countries participating in the MDG effort, havedeclared a 25-year achievement plan, which will end in2015. The United Nations Secretariat and its specializedagencies and programs, as well as representatives of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bankand the Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) have defined eight goals, 18targets and 48 indicators to measure progress towardsthe Millennium Development Goals. Among the eightgoals, Goal 7 is to ensure environmental sustainability,which includes three targets and eight indicators.Indonesia’s and the Philippines’ institutional responsesto the development and monitoring of the MDG areimpressive. Key development planning agencies, suchas the Philippines’ National Economic DevelopmentAuthority (NEDA) and Indonesia’s NationalDevelopment Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), areundertaking the development of national MDG withthe support of the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP). National statistical agencies suchas BPS and NSCB are responsible for providing qualitystatistical information in the form of measurable,quantitative indicators in order to monitor Indonesia’sand the Philippines’ MDG targets achievement. MDGindicators have become an important reference indevelopment implementation in Indonesia, from theplanning phase as stated in the Medium-Term NationalAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows