Forestry ministry to map forests

JAKARTA: The forestry ministry and the National Coordinating Agency for Surveying and Mapping signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for a joint project to map out the country's forests.

The head of the ministry's forestry planning body, Boen M. Purnama, said the move was needed to provide accurate data and information on forests in the country.

The cooperation, which will last five years, will start with pilot projects in South Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.

Boen earlier said the ministry did not have accurate data on 60 million hectares of forest in the country, including the rate of deforestation.

Indonesia has lost more than 75 percent of its forest over the past few decades. Over the past five years, some 43 million hectares of Indonesia's forest, the equivalent of half of Kalimantan island, has been destroyed. -- JP