Reduced-impact logging technique developed
Reduced-impact logging technique developed
JAKARTA (JP): A reduced-impact logging technique is currently
being developed to limit the damage caused by incorrect logging
practices, an official says.
Head of the Ministry of Forestry's Research and Development
Agency, Toga Silitonga, said here yesterday that the technique,
which aims to minimize logging waste and environmental
destruction, is being developed by the agency in collaboration
with CIRAD-Foret of France.
"Incorrect logging practices are the cause of up to 35 percent
of the forest destruction in Indonesia," Silitonga said after
opening a workshop on the results of a research conducted in the
Dipterocarp forests of Berau, East Kalimantan.
The research, known as the STREK Project or the Sylvicultural
Technique for the Regeneration of Logged-over Forest in East
Kalimantan, started in 1989 and is scheduled to be completed in
September.
The project includes the development of a reduced-impact
logging technique and the inventory of biodiversity in Berau,
which will be an essential data base for sustainable management
practices in that region.
Silitonga said yesterday that selective cutting and planting,
can reduce the negative impact of clear-cutting by at least 8
percent.
Reduced-impact logging is expected to reduce the impact even
further.
The government said earlier this year that Indonesia's forests
are shrinking at a rate of 809,000 hectares a year with the land
being used for transmigration, agriculture and plantation
projects.
The government claims that Indonesia presently has 144 million
hectares of forest, of which 21 percent are designated as
protection forests (for water and soil protection); 13 percent as
nature reserves and national parks (for nature preservation); 22
percent as limited production forests; 23 percent as regular
production forests; and 21 percent as convertible forests.
The government classifies protection forests, nature reserves
and national parks as protected areas, off limits to felling.
(pwn)