Forestry plans seminar on biodiversity

JAKARTA (JP): A one-day seminar on biodiversity in Indonesia will be held here on Saturday by the directorate general of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation.

The seminar, which is intended to increase the participation of local people in forest management and development, will focus on "Biodiversity for the People's Welfare." The seminar is also designed to inform the public of the importance of forest biodiversity and increase coordination between government offices, research and training centers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which are involved in the management of nature reserves.

The seminar is expected to be attended by about 200 participants coming from the ministry of forestry, the ministry of environment, research and training centers and NGOs throughout the country.

Among the speakers are former minister of environment Prof. Dr. Emil Salim, Dr. Herman Haeruman from the Indonesian Wildlife Society and Aca Sugandhi from the ministry of environment.

A proposal for the seminar issued by the directorate general of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation reported that, although Indonesia covers only 1.3 percent of the world's land, it has a significantly high level of biodiversity.

About 12 percent or 515 species of mammals in the world can be found in Indonesia.

The government has already launched various conservation efforts such as stipulating certain forest areas serve as national parks, nature reserves, tourist forests, hunting grounds and grand forestal parks. These areas cover about 50 million hectares of Indonesia's forest land.

The proposal said that, although government protection has been imposed, they were not yet able to entirely guarantee successful natural resources preservation.

This is mainly due to a conflict of interest between the need to preserve the forest and to use its resources for the benefit of the people who make their living from it. (10)