18% of protected forests already destroyed: Govt

18% of protected forests already destroyed: Govt

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has indicated that destruction of the country's
protected forests and conservation areas has so far reached 5.9
million hectares, or 18 percent of the total protected area.

Director of Conservation Areas at the Ministry of Forestry
Widodo S. Ramono said on Wednesday that illegal logging and land
clearance were to blame for the destruction of protected forests
and conservation areas.

"Based on satellite imagery, we can say that 18 percent of the
country's protected forest and conservation areas are no longer
green. We presume this is mainly due to illegal logging and land
clearance," he told the Jakarta Post.

The area of protected forests destroyed reached four million
hectares, Widodo said.

According to Widodo, Tanjung Puting National Park, Central
Kalimantan, recorded the highest amount of destroyed conservation
area with over half of its area plundered, covering 40,000
hectares. Destruction of protected forests in the border between
Kalimantan and Malaysia has also reached crisis level.

In contrast to environment groups' estimates, he claimed that
only 7 percent of the area of Kerinci Seblat National Park in
Sumatra was devastated. The park, situated on the borders of
Jambi, Riau and West Sumatra, is known as one of the most badly
damaged conservation areas following the implementation of
regional autonomy in 2001.

Among the conservation areas that remain well-preserved are
Mount Gede National Park and Ujung Kulon National Park, West
Java, and several national parks in Papua, said Widodo.

The forestry ministry's data shows that illegal logging and
other human activities were detected in some 5.2 million hectares
of protected forest and conservation areas.

These areas total 21.1 million hectares, according to the
ministry's data.

Mining operations inside forests are believed to be another
potential source of forest destruction.

Meanwhile, Forest Watch Indonesia's Togu Manurung believed the
actual total of the country's protected forest and conservation
areas destroyed was much higher than shown in the data provided
by the Ministry of Forestry.

He said, for example, up to 2002, the ministry presented data
that the deforestation rate had reached 1.5 million hectares per
year, but recently the ministry revised the figure to 2 million
hectares.

"Based on this experience, the ministry's data on protected
forests and conservation area destroyed is usually lower than it
actually is," he told the Post.

However, Togu agreed that the main factor in the destruction
of protected forest was widespread illegal logging.

"As production forests have diminished, illegal loggers have
shifted their target to protected forests," he said, adding that
Papua's forests, which are relatively untouched, have also become
the next destination of illegal loggers.

He added there was no other way to stop forest destruction
than to take illegal loggers to court and close down timber
companies that failed to promote sustainable environment.