Papua's natural resources conservation center to rehabilitate 1,500 hectares of Lorentz

Antara 22 Feb 11;

Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The Papua Province Center for Conservation of Natural Resources will rehabilitate about 1,500 hectares of arid land in the Lorentz National Park in Timika, Papua, a local official said here, Tuesday.

"There is land degradation in the area of Lorentz National Park which is quite alarming because of human negligence. So we will immediately rehabilitate," Head of Papua Province Center for Conservation of Natural Resources, Ignn Suteja said.

According to him, the office is still considering the possibility of a violation of the rule of law if the rehabilitation carried out in the conservation area, because the area should not be altered or disturbed based on the regional regulation.

"But we could do the rehabilitation if the plant species is the same as those that already existed. So it will not destroy the habitat and the origin of the plants," Ignn Suteja explained.

Regarding the factors causing land degradation in Lorentz National Park, Ignn Suteja said it is more because of human negligence, such as land clearing and waste dumped carelessly by the climbers.

"We know that many people often climbed the mountain. It is sometimes they did not follow a predetermined path, but found another way. Indeed there are many paths, consequently a lot of garbage had been scattered," he added.

Ignn Suteja said the office lacked officers particularly forest police therefore monitoring and maintenance of the conservation areas had not been maximized in Papua.

Therefore he urged all the relevant parties, especially communities living in the forests to preserve the areas by not hunting or capture rare animals and illegal logging.

"We expect cooperation of the people in not doing things that are forbidden under the law in this country, so that the preservation of Papua wildlife and nature could be fully realized," he hoped.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli