Forest rehabilitation efforts lagging behind destruction rate

Antara 13 Jan 10;

Banda Aceh (ANTARA nEWS) - Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said forest rehabilitation efforts that had so far been carried out by the government had not matched the scale of existing forest damage.

"Forest and land rehabilitation efforts cover only around 500,000 hectares a year while the destruction of forests across the country in 2000 to 2005 is still very high," the ministry`s deputy, Sudariyono, said quoting the minister on the occasion of 1,000 tree planting here on Wednesday.

He said the rate of forest destruction in five years from 2000 to 2005 reached 1.08 million hectares a year making 77.8 million hectares of land become critical.

Of the total critical land 1.6 million hectares are found in Aceh. The destruction of forests and land was very concerning and affecting the balance of the ecosystem, he said.

He said Aceh that has low lands and hills is very vulnarable to natural disasters.
From satellite observation it could be seen that 60 percent of land in the region is still covered by forests while only 32 percent of the whole Sumatra is covered by forests, mostly in Aceh.

"The condition should become an opportunity and a challenge for the people of Aceh to safeguard them," he said.

He said forest destruction had caused various natural disasters such as floods and landslides and so rehabilitation was a must.

The government in its effort to rehabilitate lands had launched various programs including the "One Man One Tree" campaign since 2008.

The target is by 2020 four billion trees will be planted and 2050 the number will increase to 9.3 trees. "We did it in line with the country`s committment to reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2020," he said. (*)