Reforestation program off target

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has already conceded that its 2003 reforestation target is unlikely to be met, even before the program has been launched.

Forestry Minister M. Prakosa said on Tuesday that a tight schedule and lack of preparation would make it almost impossible for the government to meet its ambitious plan to reforest some 300,000 hectares of land in a critical state across the country in 2003.

"Technically it's very difficult to do but we'll try our best," Prakosa said after a meeting with House of Representatives Commission III on Tuesday.

Prakosa acknowledged that his ministry, which leads the country's National Movement for Land and Forest Rehabilitation (GNRHL), had sent a letter to the House notifying it of its inability to carry out the project.

When asked why the government was continuing with the project, he replied, "Whatever happens, the project must continue."

Ministry Director General for Forest Rehabilitation Sutino Wibowo said the project would likely manage to reforest some 70 percent of a targeted 300,000 hectares.

"We were supposed to start preparing the plant seeds in July. But, we're able to do it only now due to lengthy negotiations between our ministry and the House (on the use of reforestation funds)," he said.

The government has allocated some Rp 400 billion to buy plant seeds for the project. Planting of the seeds for the 300,000 hectares of land is expected to start and be completed in December.

Asked whether the government would meet its reforestation target, Sutino said: "It's only a target. We don't know yet how much will be achieved."

He said the government would not force itself to reforest 300,000 hectares of barren land this year.

"If we can only achieve 70 percent, so be it. Otherwise, it will be prone to manipulation as occurred in the past," said Sutino without elaborating.

The ministry would plant the remaining seeds to achieve the target, in addition to next year's project to reforest 500,000 land, he said.

This year's reforestation program, worth Rp 1.2 trillion, will mark the beginning of the government's ambitious plan to replant some 3 million hectares of woodland across the country within five years.

Prakosa said the government had scaled down its plan to buy 300 million plant seeds to 262 million due to the tight schedule and lack of time.

Sutino explained that dozens of state-owned and private companies had been enlisted to sell the plant seeds.

"We haven't signed any contract for seed purchase," he said, adding that the government would tender for plant seed purchase soon.

In a bid to prevent manipulation, Sutino said, the ministry would pay the companies after they completed their work.

Several non-government organizations have also called on the government to postpone the project this year, alleging that the tight schedule would give rise to numerous reasons for the government to buy plant seeds from contractors, even though the species were not demanded by people, in a bid to meet its target.

The government has been urged to revise its target as the forestry ministry has only been able to manage to achieve 1 percent of its annual program to reforest 67,000 hectares of critical land.