Reforestation needs 22 years

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: It will take the province 22 years to rehabilitate its critically damaged forests taking into account that at the start of the 6th Five-Year Development Plan (1994/99) 87,000 hectares or eight percent of its forests were critically damaged.

Provincial forestry office head Hermani Apipudin announced this during the launch of the reforestation program in Sekaroh, East Lombok. The district received Rp 850 million (US$ 359,712) in aid from ten Japanese businessmen who joined the non- governmental organization of environmental lovers called Jifpro.

In the past, the government has only been able to rehabilitate about 4,000 ha per year so to rehabilitate all the damaged forests some 22 years were needed, Apipudin was quoted by Antara as saying.

The Jifpro-aided reforestation program in Sekaroh would cultivate 500,000 saplings of various tree species over three consecutive years (until 1999), on an area of 350 ha, Apipudin said.