Deforestation damages environment

Deforestation damages environment

Iskandar Zulkarnaen, Antara News Agency/Balikpapan

Looking back at a wet tropical forest in East Kalimantan 10 years
ago was refreshing. The foliage of bangkirai and meranti trees
was still dense, hardly allowing any sunlight to penetrate deep
into the forest ground. At that time, motorists often turned off
their air conditioners in order to enjoy the fresh air in the
forests.

However, since 1998, the situation has changed. The El Nino
wave that swept the hill and forest areas, compounded with a big
fire, has changed the landscape.

Today, if you look at the forest, which is located in Kutai
Kartanegara regency between Balikpapan and Samarinda cities, you
may find that there are still many trees standing, but they have
no leaves. In some parts, the dense forest has changed into vast
underbrush. Worse, the number of houses has been increasing in
the past few years and have further encroached into the forest.
The deforestation has not only damaged the forest flora, but it
has also brought losses to the forest fauna, said forestry expert
Abu Bakar Lahji.

Lahji said that the forest fire and deforestation has
destroyed some insect species that were important to spread plant
seeds across the forest area. With the absence of those insects,
the reforestation process could not proceed as fast as the
government expected.

Besides the forest fire and forest encroachment by locals, the
forest in Soeharto Hill is also threatened by the coal mining.
The local government has issued permits for coal mining in some
parts of the forest, thus threatening forest conservation.

Several local non-governmental organizations (NGO) have
strongly protested the coal mining, and in response to the
protests, the local government has said that it would review the
permits.

The NGOs demanded that the government cancel the permits as
the presence of Soeharto Hill as a conservation forest is of high
importance. It functions as a catchment area for several lowland
areas including Samarinda, Balikpapan, Muara Jawa and Semboja
areas.

Minister of Forestry M.S. Ka'ban lamented that deforestation
had taken place so rapidly on the 61,000-hectare hill, which has
become both a park for forestry research and a tourist
destination. "The government has spent a lot money to carry out
reforestation programs on the hill, but there are still many
critical areas of land," said Ka'ban.