ITTO donates $1.6m for forestry projects

JAKARTA (JP): The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) agreed on Thursday to provide a grant of US$1.6 million to support the government's efforts in promoting sustainable forest management.

Manoel Sobral Filho, the organization's executive director said the grant, which is equivalent to Rp 11.2 billion, would be used to finance three forestry projects in Indonesia.

"The three projects will focus on sustainable forest management which will benefit stakeholders, the tropical timber industries as well as local communities," Filho said following the signing of the grant agreement.

He said $1.09 million of the total grant would be used to partly finance the third phase of sustainable forest management and a human resources development project currently being executed by the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations.

Filho said that the other $211,905 would partly finance the reforestation and forest management project proposed by the ministry in its capacity of task manager for the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission's Ad Hoc Working Group on Sustainable Forest Management. While the remaining $631,861 would be used to support the development of the forestry industry in the community, around industrial forest plantations in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Minister of Forestry and Plantations Nur Mahmudi Ismail said the grant was needed to support his ministry's efforts in reducing the growing rates of forest degradation throughout the country.

According to Agus Purnomo, executive director of the World Wild Fund for Nature, the pace of forest clearing in the country had reached 2.4 million hectares every year in contrast to 900,000 hectares in the late 1980s.

From 1990 to 1999, Indonesia has received from ITTO a total of $12 million, making it one of three countries that has benefited most from the organization's funds. (06)