Critical land in Java main priority for forest policy<\/p>\n
Sri Wahyuni and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post,
\nYogyakarta\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Replanting Java's critical woodland has become the main priority
\nfor the government's reforestation program this year after
\ndrought has devastated several rice-producing regencies across
\nthe island.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said
\nover the weekend that the government had earmarked some Rp 1.2
\ntrillion (US$120 million) for reforestation projects that will
\nbegin in 2003, with Java getting the bulk of it.<\/p>\n
\"We will prioritize (revitalizing) forests on Java, especially
\nthose that are vital water catchment areas,\" he said in
\nYogyakarta over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Kalla said the government would try to carry out reforestation
\nprograms covering 300,000 hectares of critical land in 15
\nprovinces and 154 regencies across the country.<\/p>\n
The government, according to Jusuf Kalla, is targeting 21,000
\nhectares of conservation forests, 65,000 hectares of protected
\nforests, 79,000 hectares of production forest, and 149,000
\nhectares of \"other\" critical areas.<\/p>\n
Almost 100,000 hectares, or one third of the amount to be
\nreplanted, will be on Java, Jusuf Kalla said while quoting data
\nfrom the ministry of forestry.<\/p>\n
Tachrir Fathoni of the ministry of forestry said the areas on
\nJava targeted for reforestation would not include any of the land
\nthat state-owned forestry company PT Perhutani -- which has
\nrights to some 2 million hectares -- operates on.<\/p>\n
This year, a 5-year, 3 million-hectare reforestation program
\nbegan across the country. Next year, some 500,000 hectares of
\ncritical land are expected to be reforested.<\/p>\n
The government has theorized that the cause of the
\nincreasingly worse weather extremes, such as drought and
\nflooding, was due to uncontrolled destruction of forests which
\nfunction as water catchment areas, among other things.<\/p>\n
\"We expect the reforestation program to be able to prevent
\nponds and reservoirs from drying up when in future dry seasons,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Tachrir, who is the spokesman for the Forestry Ministry, said
\nthat his ministry was expected to start planting some areas later
\nthis year, pending the disbursement of the money from the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
\"We also want to wait for the rainy season (before starting to
\ncultivate) as the young trees will need sufficient water to grow
\nproperly,\" he explained, while adding that the government had
\nstarted to think about a reforestation plan earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Tachrir said he was optimistic that the government would be
\nable to go ahead with this year's reforestation program.<\/p>\n
\"The cultivation will be conducted by regional administrations
\nwith the central government's assistance,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Each of the new trees will take between seven and 80 years to
\ngrow to a size with any commercial value. Tachrir said that the
\nreforestation plan also includes a program to monitor the sprout
\ndevelopment to prevent illegal logging of young trees.<\/p>\n
\"We will take care of the monitoring,\" he said without
\nelaborating.<\/p>\n
Tachrir said the government's commitment to reforest some 3
\nmillion hectares of critical land would only be able to cover
\nsmall parts of some 43 million hectares of the denuded former
\nforests, or an area more than half the size of Kalimantan, that
\nhas been damaged in just the past five years.<\/p>\n
Although the forestry ministry claims that there are some 104
\nmillion hectares of old growth forest remaining, local and
\ninternational ecology organizations have put the number at only
\n60 million hectares at present, after losing more than 75 percent
\nof its forests to exploitation in the past three decades.<\/p>\n
The condition of the country's forests, once known as the
\nsecond-largest source of biodiversity in the world after Brazil,
\nstarted to decline after the president Soeharto's New Order
\nregime exploited the forests in a completely unregulated manner
\nand allowed huge mines to be dug throughout the wild lands of the
\narchipelago. Mining and forestry were two of its major money-
\nmaking machines.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the governments that have succeeded Soeharto
\nhave continued exploit the forests at a an extremely alarming
\nrate. President Megawati Soekarnoputri's regime has, for example,
\ngiven the green light to several mining companies to operate
\ngigantic open-pit mines in protected forests.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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