Ministry urged to speed revitalization of damaged forest

Ministry urged to speed revitalization of damaged forest

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice president Jusuf Kalla has urged the Ministry of Forestry to
fully utilize the massive amount of forest rehabilitation funds
-- most of which is currently earning interest in local banks --
to help speed up the revitalization of the country's ailing
forestry industry.

The funds are also needed to accelerate efforts to
rehabilitate the nation's devastated forests, which
according to the ministry, has reached between 31.4 million and
59.2 million hectares.

According to a recent ministry report, the rehabilitation
funds, collected since the 1970s from businesspeople holding
forest concessions, now amounts to Rp 11 trillion (US$1.17
billion).

"I have ordered the Ministry of Finance to find ways to
immediately distribute the idle funds to rehabilitate our forests
and help create better forest management," said Kalla in front of
business players in the forestry industry on Thursday.

Kalla, however, emphasized the need to boost supervision of
the money, as most of it had allegedly been misused by ministry
officials, as well as businesspeople in collusion with the
ministry.

"Many people are seeking profits from the program. One small
example, the price of seeds for certain programs is often
inflated from the original price," he explained.

Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban acknowledged that some
officials at his ministry and their private sector partners in
the program were seeking as much profit as possible from the
program, while ignoring the rehabilitation program.

In fact, that was part of the reason behind the ministry of
finance move to not release the money.

"The orientation of people involved in this program is merely
profit. We want to change that now by showing that this is a for-
profit program, but a social responsibility toward our
environment," said Kaban.

This year, the Ministry of Forestry has allocated some Rp 3.2
trillion for restoring some 750,000 hectares of denuded natural
forests, up from 251,000 hectares at a cost of Rp 2.3 trillion a
year ago.

The 2004 rehabilitation figure is lower than the initial
target of 500,000 hectares. In 2003, the ministry managed to
restore some 251,000 hectares of forest, far lower than its
earlier target of 500,000 hectares.

Kaban said that the ministry was having difficulties in
meeting the rehabilitation target, citing inefficiency as a
result of corruption, the lack of supervision for the program and
poor coordination with the provincial administrations.

Meanwhile, ministry spokesman Transtoto Handhadari said that
the plan by the government to immediately use the money for
rehabilitation to increase the supply of legal wood available for
the companies in the wood-processing sector.

"There is a plan to use some of the funds for industrial
plantations so that they can sufficiently supply raw material to
local forestry based industry," said Transtoto.

At present, the country's forestry-based industry is facing a
shortage of legal raw material because those in charge of
replanting are not efficient enough to keep the supply up, which,
in turn, increases the demand for illegal wood from across the
country.