Fortech to help RI manage forest projects
Fortech to help RI manage forest projects
JAKARTA (JP): Australia's Forestry Technical Services
(Fortech) will give Indonesia environmentally-safe technical
assistance in managing its forestry projects.
Fortech's director Philip J. Montgomery said yesterday his
company was discussing assistance priorities and options with the
Indonesian government.
"I hope we will reach an agreement by this afternoon with the
State Ministry for Environmental Affairs, to develop a priority
for one or two forestry projects in the country," Montgomery told
The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Indonesia-Australia
Workshop on Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ).
He declined to say which projects would be developed.
AIJ is an international pilot program for cooperative
opportunities between countries to reduce, avoid or sequester
greenhouse gas emissions.
It is an implementation of the United Nation Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
Joint implementation is expected to allow parties to meet
their future greenhouse commitments in a more efficient and cost-
effective manner than if they acted alone.
The AIJ pilot program is expected to evolve into a regime
where investing companies and countries can claim credit for
greenhouse gas abatement.
Montgomery said that Fortech, a major forestry consulting
company in Australia, was involved in industrial forestry
plantations in Indonesia in the past.
"The forestry sector in Indonesia is really big and has much
to offer, and we want to give a whole understanding of the value
of managing a sustainable industrial forestry because it is a
major way to reduce the greenhouse gas emission," he said.
"This can get the attention of the international community and
bring funding to forestry project here, which also needs
financial assistance," he said.
Montgomery said aspects of Fortech's plan included reduced-
impact logging in the area of reforestation, reforestation of
grassland, improved industrial forestry plantation management and
mangrove conservation and rehabilitation.
He said it would take about three years to four years to
research and develop the project.
The forestry ministry plans to establish 1.25 million hectares
of industrial forest plantations in the sixth Five Year
Development Plan which covers the period 1993 to 1998.
The total land area is targeted to be divided into 500,000
hectares for pulp, 300,000 hectares for transmigration forestry
and 450,000 hectares for construction wood.
The two-day workshop involved government and business
representatives and the energy, mining, transportation and
agriculture sectors. (das)