Forestry ministry to begin repairing Aceh's mangrove forests
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)