Antara 13 Dec 10;
Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - During the period 2000-2005, Indonesia lost a forest area as wide as a soccer field every second of the day due to illegel logging, a forestry official said.
"Some 1.7-2.5 million hectares of forest were destroyed annually by illegal logging in the period 2000-2005. This figure translates into a loss of forest land the size of a soccer field every second of the day," Djoko Supomo, head of the subdirectorate for assessment of natural forest utilization at the Forestry Ministry, said here Monday.
He said Indonesia now had about 120 million hectares of forests. Of this number, 20.5 million hectares were conservation forests, 33 millions hectares protected forests and 66 million hectares production forests.
Back in the 1970s, production forests were some of the most needed and valuable natural resources, and at the time a business enterprise was allowed to gain control over up to more than 1 million hectares of production forest.
But deforestation in Indonesia had worsened since the regional autonomy system was implemented at the beginning of 2000, he said.
Meanwhile, a forestry reseacher said poor surveillance had been the main cause of severe deforestation during the past few decades in the country.
"Forest surveillance has been and is still poor. It needs to be tightened to reduce deforestation," Dr Iskandar Z Ziregar, director of strategic studies and research at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said.
Iskandar urged national stakeholders in the forestry sector to assume a greater role and better perform their functions in overseeing froests to counter deforestation.
He called on foresters to increase their capacity and skills sp as to be able to save Indonesian forests in a professional way.
"Every one holding an academic degree in forestry should also be a certified forester, somebody whose practical skills has been tested according to international standards by a reputed foresters` assocaition," he said.
"In Germany, a forester needs at least two years to become a certified one ," he said.(*)
