Forest management runs short of funds
Forest management runs short of funds
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
A lack of funds and means have undermined sustainable forest
management efforts despite the goodwill of tropical country
governments, a high ranking officer of the International Tropical
Timber Council (ITTC) said on Monday.
"Sustainable forest management is a difficult and costly task.
The international community has made dozens, if not hundreds of
recommendations on policies and action to improve forest
management, but has it done its part to provide Indonesia with
the means to implement them?" ITTC executive director Manoel
Sobral Filho asked.
Filho was addressing the audience of the 32nd ITTC meeting
during the opening of the six-day session by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri at the Bali International Convention Center at the
Sheraton Nusa Indah.
Accompanying the president were Minister of Forestry M.
Prakosa and Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim. The
ceremony was also attended by Colombia's Minister of Environment
Juan Mayr Maldonado, Minister for Forest of Cote d'Ivoire
Catherine Angele Boka Agoussi, and Parliamentary Secretary for
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Kenichi Mizuno.
The Indonesian government and the ITTO secretariat have
estimated that implementing measures simply to secure and prevent
illegal logging in the planned 50 million hectares of protected
forest and conservation areas in Indonesia would require US$40
million annually.
"Regretfully, the international community is providing less
than $12 million a year to assist Indonesia with forest
protection, including forest law enforcement and the prevention
of illegal logging," Filho said.
"Making sustainable forest management financially viable is an
immediate challenge if forest destruction is to be minimized."
He asserted that although a 'global forest fund' did exist to
assist producer countries to achieve sustainable forest
management, the money contributed to this fund had not yet been
at a scale that would enable it to have a major impact towards
achieving its objective.