$33.7 million grant from Japan for two projects

JAKARTA (JP): Japan signed diplomatic notes with Indonesia yesterday on 3.09 billion yen (US$33.7 million) in grant assistance for two projects aimed at increasing food production and conserving biodiversity.

The notes were signed here by Director General for Foreign Economic Relations Soemadi D.M. Brotodiningrat and Japanese Ambassador Taizo Watanabe.

The assistance comes as part of the "Indonesian Biodiversity Conservation Program", which is a joint effort by Indonesia, the Unites States and Japan.

Out of the fund, 1.35 billion yen is to be used to increase food crop production and productivity by provision of farm inputs and such agricultural equipment as tractors, irrigation pumps and rice milling machines.

The project will mainly focus on eastern Indonesia, covering the provinces of East Kalimantan, South, North and Southeast Sulawesi, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian Jaya.

The other 1.74 billion yen is intended to conserve Indonesia's tremendous biological wealth by supporting the implementation of Indonesia's "National Strategy for Biodiversity Management" and the "Biodiversity Action Plan for Indonesia".

The Japanese contribution will strengthen the management and conservation of biological diversity in Indonesia and assist the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Ministry of Forestry.

The project is designed to upgrade the capability of LIPI's research and development center for biology and the ministry's management function in the "Gunung Halimun National Park," a model site of conservation and the study of biodiversity.

Biological diversity constitutes the totality of all existent species, genes and ecosystems surrounding them. Indonesia's extraordinary biological resources, essential to human survival, will be threatened if forests and marine conditions continue to deteriorate. (31)