Forest rehabilitation

Forest rehabilitation

The general election is drawing near, yet Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri has continued to do nothing about the increasing damage being done to our forests.

On Tuesday, the head of state kicked off the National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation program in Gunung Kidul district, Yogyakarta.

In the past, forest rehabilitation was marked by a tree planting ceremony, talked about for a while after being proclaimed by the president, and then left to slip into oblivion.

Hopefully, this year's national movement for forest rehabilitation will be successful in achieving its objective of regreening 300,000 hectares of forest with 263 million seedlings.

That figure, however, is not commensurate with the 3.8 million hectares of forest damaged in the past five years.

According to Worldwide Fund for Nature-Indonesia (WWF), some 40 percent of the country's forests has been destroyed in the past 50 years.

It is extremely difficult to reforest barren land in Indonesia due to the exorbitant cost.

However, it goes without saying that such a program has to be undertaken and that the government should seriously consider a proposal by the Indonesian Environmental Forum and WWF-Indonesia on a moratorium on logging.

If this new program is able to reforest only 300,000 hectares of land this year, while 3.2 million hectares is destroyed in the same year, then the dream of forest rehabilitation will be nothing more than a will-o'-the-wisp.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta