RI's degraded forest area doubles in one year<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Illegal logging and forest fires have exacerbated the
\nenvironmental destruction in the country, with degraded forest
\nareas increasing at an alarming level, a government official
\nsays.<\/p>\n
Head of Research and Development at the Ministry of Forestry
\nAgus Sarsito said on Tuesday that degraded forest areas had
\nreached at total of 54.6 million hectares in 2002, up from 23.9
\nmillion hectares in 2001.<\/p>\n
Agus said the government would only be able to recover 1.4
\nmillion hectares of the degraded forest over the next five years
\nthrough its reforestation program.<\/p>\n
\"Besides those degraded forests, there was also 41.7 million
\nhectares of degraded non-forest land in 2002,\" he said in a paper
\npresented at a seminar on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).<\/p>\n
He also said that Indonesia had a total 120.3 million hectares
\nof forest, or about 60 percent of its total land area.<\/p>\n
As part of its efforts to reduce forest degradation, Agus said
\nthe government had continuously reduced the annual cut of forest
\nconcessionaires.<\/p>\n
However, environmental activists said the move would not be
\neffective, as it did not resolve the illegal logging that has
\nworsened the country's already degraded forests.<\/p>\n
The government has also launched a reforestation program
\ncovering three million hectares of degraded areas -- 1.4 million
\nhectares of degraded forest and 1.6 million hectares of degraded
\nnon-forest land -- over the next five years with a fund of Rp 15
\ntrillion.<\/p>\n
The rehabilitation program is being financed by the
\nreforestation fund.<\/p>\n
The government initially targeted for rehabilitation nine
\nmillion hectares of degraded land, but this would have required a
\nfund of Rp 45 trillion.<\/p>\n
Agus said that the ministry had also identified possible
\nlocations of rehabilitation program that may be eligible for CDM
\nprojects with assistance from the Australian government and the
\nWorld Bank.<\/p>\n
Under CDM, an developed country can compensate its high
\ngreenhouse gas (GHG) or carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by
\nproviding incentives to developing countries to use
\nenvironmentally friendly technology to limit their GHG emission.<\/p>\n
Besides incentives, the developed country must also reduce its
\nGHG emission within its own territory, as required by the Kyoto
\nProtocol.<\/p>\n
Despite their rehabilitation program, the government has made
\na counterproductive move by planning to allow 22 mining firms to
\nresume operating in protected forests.<\/p>\n
Gunardi, deputy assistant of climate change and atmosphere
\naffairs at the Office of the State Minister for the Environment,
\nsaid that such information from the ministry should be
\ntransparent and accurate.<\/p>\n
\"Sometimes we are confused about the ministry's information,
\nwhich always changes and is different from information at other
\nministries. I hope we can start issuing a single set of
\ninformation,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Liana Bratasida, Deputy of Environmental
\nConservation at the state minister's office, said the ministry
\nwould offer 30 projects in exchange for incentives from the CDM
\nprogram of developed countries.<\/p>\n
Gunardi said Indonesia had secured only one CDM project from
\nthe Dutch government, which has pledged ti give US$26 million to
\nthe Wayang Windu geothermal power plant from 2008 to 2012 for its
\nability to reduce certain amount of CO2 emission.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ris-degraded-forest-area-doubles-in-one-year-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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