German legislators mull damage at Mt. Leuser park
German legislators mull damage at Mt. Leuser park
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Four visiting representatives of the German parliament expressed
concern over environmental damage at the Mount Leuser National
Park, located in Aceh near the border with North Sumatra.
Rudolf Krous, chairman of the German parliament's commission
for economic cooperation and development, said numerous
development projects in the park threatened the area's flora and
fauna.
He cited the Ladia Galaska highway project being undertaken by
the Nangroe Aceh Darussalam provincial administration, saying the
construction would likely disturb the habitat of protected
species like the Sumatran tiger and elephants.
The government is constructing a road network through the
national park to link southeast Aceh with other regencies.
Rudolf said the parliament would recommend the Indonesian
government not support the highway project.
"The German parliament will soon issue letters of
recommendation to the Indonesian government not to support or
allow the environmental destruction to happen at the national
park," he said on Saturday.
The European Union recently expressed its commitment to
provide financial assistance to construct an airport to connect
the regencies of Aceh with each other and the outside.
Detlef Dzembritzki, deputy of economic cooperation and
development in the German parliament, said that if the Ladia
Galaska highway project goes forward the provincial
administration should review several options to redirect the
route to outside of Leuser.
"We have surveyed the Leuser area from the air for about two-
and-a-half hours in southeast Aceh, which is undergoing a
conservation project. However, we are dissatisfied to see
environmental damage in several areas of the park," he said.
Irvan, the head of institutional capacity development at the
Leuser park management unit, said environmental damage in Leuser
had reached a critical point.
He said that aside from the Ladia Galaska project, much of the
environmental damage was caused by illegal logging by the local
community.
"The environmental damage in Leuser has now reached some
34,000 hectares per annum. Much of the damage is evident in
eastern and southeast Aceh," Ivan told The Jakarta Post.