Forest problems more serious

Forest problems more serious

PADANG, West Sumatra: Nomadic farming and fires are among the chronic problems faced by forests in the province, a councilor says.

Djusan Nuli, a member of the provincial legislative council, said in a plenary meeting here yesterday that the problems persist because of poor coordination among the institutions in charge of protecting the forests.

Djusan said that the Team for Forest Protection of the Solok regency recently foiled an attempt to smuggle 480 cubic meters of logs and 348,500 cubic meters of smaller pieces of lumber out of the Sangir forest.

As many as 585.92 hectares of forest caught fire during the 1994/1995 fiscal year, he told Antara. Djusan also predicted a similar amount of forest may also be ravaged by fires next year.

Djusan called for greater effort to curb nomadic farming and illegal logging in the Sumatran forests by, for instance, opening more land outside of the forests for farming and disseminating information on forest conservation to local farmers. (imn)