Mega calls for logging moratorium

Mega calls for logging moratorium

KUTA, Bali: President Megawati Soekarnoputri called on Sunday
for a temporary moratorium on logging to avoid excessive
exploitation of the country's forests, the overall area of which
has decreased by between 1.7 million and two million hectares
annually over the past 10 years.

"We must give our forests a chance to take a breath," Megawati
said at the opening of a two-day national meeting of the
Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) in Kuta,
Bali, on Sunday.

"Are we going to preserve our forests, to give them back their
life, or are we going to let them be exploited until they are
fully destroyed?" said Megawati.

Indonesia lost, on average, some 1.5 million hectares of
forests each year between 1985 and 1997. By the beginning of
2000, Indonesia's forests had been reduced to a mere 20 million
hectares, down from pre-1985 levels of nearly 43 million
hectares. --JP