Management of teak forests

Management of teak forests

From Media Indonesia

At the beginning of the month, I went to Singapore and
Malaysia. Traveling by bus from Johor Baru to Kuala Lumpur along
a 324-kilometer-long toll road, I saw on both sides of the road
some 650,000 well-looked-after teak trees that were about five
years old and an average height of between 9 meters and 12
meters. Millions of teak trees have been planted all over
Malaysia.

In Indonesia, teak trees are illegally felled at a very young
age and they are not planted en masse. If the government fails to
pay proper attention to these trees, the young generation will
have to go abroad to see them.

The Indonesian government should learn from the Malaysian
government about how to make use of less productive land for teak
trees.

Unless the Indonesian government acts now, teak craftsmen in
Blora, for example, will have to import teak wood from Malaysia
some 15 to 20 years from now.

In the early 1970s, Malaysia invited Indonesia's academics to
teach in Malaysia but now we need them here. Do not let this
condition recur in the case of teak wood.

IRMAL
Jakarta