'Reforestation plan a mission impossible'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An environmental activist has called the government's plan to reforest critical land areas across the country a "mission impossible" due to lack of preparation and time.

The Rp 12.7 trillion project that would supposedly cover a total land area of 300,000 hectares this year has to be completed in only three months, but still must wait for final government approval, said Wisnu Rusmantoro, a forestry researcher with the Pelangi environmental watchdog.

"We suggest that the government postpone the project until the approval guidelines are ready. Otherwise, it would be prone to abuse," he told a meeting between environmental watchdogs and the State Ministry of Environment on Friday.

Currently, some 43 million hectares of the country's forest, or an area more than half the size of Borneo, have been denuded in the past five years here.

A hastily prepared guideline that is supposed to cover the project's planning, implementation, monitoring and sanctions would render the project vulnerable to violation and corruption, Wisnu said.

Liana Bratasida, the deputy minister of environment conservation, acknowledged that the government had not yet prepared any data or details for the project.

Also, it has yet to inform the officials and people in the regions in charge of the project about it. The government will only begin "a brainstorming session" with provincial administrations about the program next week.

However, she said that the government would continue the project as "it has become a national movement".

She earlier said in the meeting that the government expects public participation in the project to prevent possible violations.

"We don't want to repeat past mistakes," she said, referring to violations of reforestation funds worth billions of rupiah in recent years.

In the past, the government purchased plant seeds to be grown in deforested areas across the country from certain cronies, regardless of compatibility. The project failed miserably.

Wisnu warned that it would just become yet another "cash cow" by certain corrupt people involved in the project, with the ambitious-sounding title, the Movement for the Rehabilitation of National Protected Forests (GRHLN).

"Frankly speaking, we all know about the clandestine moves of some brokers to prepare certain species of plant seeds for the project nowadays," he said.

Should the government insist on doing the project this year, it is possible that it would buy plant seeds from the brokers to meet the reforestation target, he said.

The government has allocated Rp 400 billion to buy plant seeds.

Sources at the Forestry Ministry said that increasing requests from provincial administrations to take part in the project led the government to increase the number of areas to be reforested from 21 to 29.

The NGOs, therefore, urged the government to be transparent in managing the project and its trillions of rupiah of taxpayer money.

Liana said that she could only guarantee transparency from her ministry, which is assigned to monitor the project. But signs of doom are already apparent. During the same meeting, an official with the Forestry Ministry, refused to answer some fairly simple questions from reporters about the project's details and costs in each area.

Following severe drought this year, the government has announced the disbursement of Rp 1.2 trillion for this year reforestation program covering 300,000 hectares of critical land in 15 provinces and 154 regencies across the country.

This year's program will initiate the government's commitment to replant 3 million hectares of woodland across the country within five years. Next year, some 500,000 hectares of deforested land is expected to be reforested.