Forestry ministry to begin repairing Aceh's mangrove forests

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Forestry says it will soon start the rehabilitation of tsunami-damaged mangrove forests in the coastal areas of Aceh and North Sumatra as part of a five-year plan to ensure the recovery of mangrove forests throughout Indonesia.

The tidal wave, which hit both provinces on Dec. 26, destroyed around 40,000 hectares of mangrove forests, said the ministry's secretary-general, Wahjudi Wardojo, on Tuesday.

"The rehabilitation of mangrove forests in Aceh and North Sumatra will start in two or three months and cost Rp 5 million (US$539) per hectare," he added.

The total funding needed for Aceh alone will be around Rp 200 billion.

The plans for mangrove forest rehabilitation in Aceh and North Sumatra were discussed at a meeting held on Tuesday by the forestry ministry and attended by representatives of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), non- governmental organizations and research institutions.

The rehabilitation program is in line with the proposed spatial plan for coastal cities drawn up by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). As part of the program, 3.5- to five-kilometer buffer areas between the coast and major towns and cities will be given over to mangrove forests, fish farms and plantations.

"We will cooperate with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in this regard. Basically, what we were are concerned with here is conservation," said Transtoto Handadhari, head of the forestry ministry's information center.

"The rehabilitation work will start with the identification and appraisal of zones of destruction that have already been mapped," he added.

ITTO Executive Director Manoel Sobral Filho said before the meeting that Indonesia had been the largest beneficiary of the organization's grants and "we hope to increase the amount of our grant for Indonesia this year due to the calamities in Aceh."

The forestry ministry's head of foreign cooperation and investment, Bambang Murdiono, said after the meeting that the ITTO had agreed to provide $30,000 out of its emergency fund for preparatory work on the project.

"The initial ITTO grant will be used to hire consultants to formulate the project proposal. After the proposal has been drawn up, we will seek funding sources," he added.

Indonesia receives around $2 million per year out of the ITTO's $15 million annual grant budget.

The ITTO is an intergovernmental organization promoting the conservation and sustainable management, use and trade of tropical forest resources. Indonesia is one of its 59 member countries, which together account for 80 percent of the world's tropical forests and 90 percent of the global timber trade.

Before the meeting, Sobral Filho signed two agreements with senior officials of the forestry ministry on the funding to the tune of $990,772 for two of the ministry's participatory community forest management projects in Jambi and East Kalimantan. (003)