77,000 families resettled

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: Over the past decade, the province has resettled over 77,000 farmers who had occupied protected forests, a local senior official said yesterday.

Chief of the provincial office of transmigration Jogjapratono said the farmers were moved from the Mt. Balak, Wonosobo, Padang Cermin and Pulo Panggung forests.

He said the provincial government had a problem because it did not have enough land to resettle all the forest squatters.

Currently, more than 86,500 squatter families have yet to be resettled while the remaining land is only enough to accommodate 12,000 families.

"Much of the land is swampy and a lot has yet to be done to make it arable," he said, reported Antara.

The government blames forest squatters for deforestation because of their well-known slash-and-burn farming techniques. (pan)