Forestry plans seminar on biodiversity

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)