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.