National Park threatened

National Park threatened

From Kompas

The problem resulting from the construction of the short cut road from Alas Purwo National Park to Plengkung at Banyuwangi based on a perfunctory proposal and backed by the "special troops" of a political party, hasn't been settled yet, but the Betiri National Park near Jember, which is adjacent to the first mentioned park, has been damaged.

The gold mining operations at the 150,000 hectare area including the plantation areas surrounding the national park seem to proceed though rejected by many parties.

The forests are inhabited by many wild animals and the plantations which are the locals' sources of income are now threatened by human greed. They seem to forget that destroying is very easy but reforestation takes a long time.

Surprisingly, the government seems to underestimate the environmental problem, allowing protected areas be exploited if expected to yield money. We worry that the government will allow the national parks to be exploited one by one, so that eventually Indonesia's wild life vanishes.

Indonesia's pride, as the third country in the world, after Brazil and Zaire, in terms of its diversities of biological resources, will fade because of Indonesia's rise in the ranking of world's most threatened wild species.

WENNY S. LESTARI

Malang, East Java