Eternal Snow on Mt Jayawijaya Summit Feared to Disappear by 2020

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Wamena Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Papua Province urges native ethnic groups and economy practitioners to prevent the layers of ice on the peak of Mt Jayawijaya from disappearing since it is predicted that the eternal snow will have been vanished by 2020.

Wamena BMKG head Benny Marlissa said that high frequency of deforestation will eliminate the layers of ice on the peak of the mountain. 

"With the ongoing practices of deforestation without government supervision, the thick layers of ice continue to shrink," she said on Friday, June 9.

Benny explained that Wamena suffers from omnipresent deforestation going out of control. It happens because the native ethnic groups believe that they have customary communal land rights, he said. 

Furthermore, economy practitioners also engage in acts of deforestation in the pursuit of profit.

The Government and global society need to take strategic steps to halt the melting ice on the summit of Mt Jayawijaya since it is one of the three snowy summits in the equator, other than in Africa and Peru, Benny urged. This is done by correcting behavior that triggers global warming such as illegal logging and high production of carbon emission.

ANTARA