Forests reduced by 809,000 ha every year

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's forests are declining at a rate of 809,000 hectares each year with the land being used for other purposes, including transmigration, agriculture and plantation projects.

An expert assistant for forest protection and security at the Minister of Forestry, Sukardjo, said yesterday that shifting cultivators and regional development also contribute to the decline in forest areas.

Sukardjo was quoted by Antara as saying in Bali yesterday that Indonesia currently has 119 million hectares of forest. These are categorized as permanent forest areas (113.8 million hectares), forest areas which are still grown sporadically with trees (92.4 million hectares) and barren forest areas (21.4 million hectares).

There are additionally 20 million hectares of production forests which may be subject to conversion for non-forestry purposes.

Sukardjo told local forestry officials in Bali that it was necessary to conduct five-yearly inventories to observe the decline of the province's forest areas.

He said that in the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan, ending in 1999, the government expects to settle and legalize 158,875 kilometers of borderlines delineating outer-forest areas, 37,830 km separating various forest functions and 83,800 km separating the areas of various forest concessions.

The Ministry of Forestry also aims to install 720 checkpoints from which monitoring and controls can be conducted.

So far, 70 percent of the targets to establish outer-forest borderlines and 30 percent delineating forest areas have been achieved.

Expansion

Sukardjo said the government is also continuing its efforts to expand the areas of conservation sites, which are targeted at 10 million hectares of sea area and 10 million hectares of land area.

To ensure security in the conservation sites, he said, the ministry has joined hands with other agencies, such as the Directorate General of Regional Development, the Indonesian Institute of Science, the Directorate General of Fisheries and the Navy.

The government claims the country presently has 144 million hectares of forest, of which 21 percent are designated as protection forests (for water and soil protection); 13 percent as nature reserves and national parks (for nature preservation and genetic conservation); 22 percent as limited production forests; 23 percent as regular production forests; and 21 percent as convertible forests.

The government classifies protection forests, nature reserves and national parks as totally protected areas and off limits to felling. (pwn)