Govt urged to reforest huge Kalimantan peat land

JAKARTA (JP): A team assigned to review the one-million hectare peat land project in Central Kalimantan has suggested that the government reforest the area on the grounds the megaproject is off-target and threatens the environment.

The team's chairman, Gunawan Satari, said Friday that some of the land allocated for the megaproject were not suitable to grow food on. Gunawan said that only 50 percent of the area contained peat.

"The peat land project has destroyed 1.4 million hectares of forests, caused forest fires and polluted rivers in the locality. Local people have lost their livelihoods from the rivers and forests," Gunawan said at a news conference attended by Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin.

Gunawan added that the project also threatened the natural environment, including the habitat of orangutans and proboscis monkeys.

He said Rp 2 trillion (US$137 million) had been spent developing the megaproject, around Rp 527 billion of which came from the reforestation fund.

Initial estimates said the megaproject would cost Rp 5 trillion (US$2.1 billion) to set up. PT Sumatera Timur Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Sambu Group, was appointed by the government to develop the area.

Gunawan said about 50,000 hectares of the land had been opened and the government had resettled 13,500 volunteer transmigrants on 27,000 hectares of the land in the 1996/1997 fiscal year.

The remaining 23,000 hectares should be used to resettle local transmigrants, Gunawan said.

The project, launched in February 1996, involves converting one million hectares of peat land in Central Kalimantan into 638,000 hectares of rice fields. The remaining 362,000 hectares are to be used for horticulture, plantations, conservation areas, housing and reservoirs.

The project is meant to compensate for the conversion of agricultural areas on Java into housing complexes, industrial estates and highways.

The project aims to guarantee the country's food security as most of the population still consumes rice as their staple diet.

Indonesia first enjoyed rice self-sufficiency in 1984, but returned to importing rice in late 1994 after bad weather destroyed domestic harvests.

Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin said the decision to convert one million hectares of peat moss in Central Kalimantan into rice producing areas was taken haphazardly.

The results of the team's studies are to be discussed at a meeting with related ministers and the chief of the National Development Planning Board.

"The result of the meeting will then be reported to the President at the next cabinet meeting," he said.

Soleh also said that the country could experience rice shortages in the future, requiring more imports if steps were not taken to boost domestic production.

He said that unhusked rice production was estimated to fall 6.25 percent to 46.3 million metric tons in 1998 against 1997 production of 49.2 million tons.

"If we do not take urgent steps, there will be difficulties in getting rice and this could cause serious food shortages in the future. It will also necessitate more imports," he said.

That is why the government has agreed to provide Rp 800 billion from the budget to support plans to boost production of rice, soybeans and corn, Soleh said.

"We will use the money to finance a special task force which will increase productivity and expand areas of rice, soybeans and corn (cultivation). The task force is expected to boost unhusked rice output by 2.1 million tons in 1998," he added.

Corn output would eventually increase by 691,000 tons and soybeans by 264,000 tons.

The State Logistics Agency said it would import 3.1 million tons of rice in 1998, against 350,000 tons in 1997. It imports around 700,000 tons of soybeans annually.

Indonesia's rice output has fallen due to last year's prolonged drought caused by the El Nio weather phenomenon and also a decrease in the amount of land under rice cultivation. (gis)