Forest fires a costly lesson: Try

KARANG JOANG, East Kalimantan (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno said yesterday the outbreak of forest fires this year is too costly a lesson that should not be repeated.

Addressing the National Regreening and Natural Conservation Day ceremony, Try called on all parties to be proactive and prevent further forest fires. Yesterday's ceremony was also held in commemoration of National Social Solidarity Day.

"Everyone of us should pay careful attention to climate change and the environment," he said, adding that the fires had endangered the function of the forest as the world's lung.

He called on the public to join the "One Million Trees Movement" by planting trees and becoming involved in environmental regeneration.

"The forest fires took place not only because of nature and the long drought, but also because of people's poor discipline," he said.

Forest fires destroyed more than 165,000 hectares of forest in the country this year, causing an estimated Rp 132 billion (US$26.4 million) loss, according to Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo yesterday.

He recently said the estimated loss did not include the immeasurable ecological damage such as destroyed habitats and forest ecosystems. It also did not include the financial losses of timber estates and plantation companies.

More than 125,000 hectares of industrial and protected forest and more than 40,000 hectares of brush and land were destroyed in the fires.

Experts have predicted that it will take the country years to restore the damaged soil.

Also yesterday, the Vice President presented awards and prizes to the winners of the regreening contest, to model social workers, youth activists and district administrators.

He also presented awards to 33 officials and community leaders who made an outstanding contribution to the campaign for social welfare and humanity. They included West Java Governor R. Nuriana, Central Java Governor Soewardi, East Java Governor Basofi Soedirman, and former Jakarta governor Museno.

Yesterday's commemoration was held at the Karang Joang village, 25 kilometers from Balikpapan which is known as the oil city of East Kalimantan.

East Kalimantan Governor H.M. Ardans told Try that since joining the One Million Trees Movement, the province had rehabilitated 96 hectares of damaged land and planted 7,278,084 trees.

Education

In Jakarta yesterday, an environmentalist highlighted the need for environmental education to be incorporated in the curriculum and extracurricular activities in secondary schools, both in rural and urban areas, to instill a love of the environment from an early age.

Katarina Panji, the World Wildlife Fund's head of communications, said early education could teach children not to be wasteful.

"They are the future decision makers. If they are not equipped with knowledge about the environment early on, what would happen to our environment in the future?" she said after speaking in a discussion on nature conservation.

She said lessons on environmental issues had not been effectively taught in schools due to the shortage of capable teachers.

Katarina said the lessons should be accompanied by excursions to nature sites to develop the children's sense of belonging. The trips would give them more intense experience than merely reading from their textbooks, she said. (42/09)