Medan, July 30: Eyeing the
industrial forest estates in Indonesia, the government is
encouraging reforestation of two million hectares of forest
area each year.
"If we wish to conserve the forests, it would be
necessary to launch a reforestation drive considering that
forests are like the lungs of the earth," Forestry Minister
M S Kaban said.
Kaban asked all relevant parties to give more support
to the Indonesian initiative of forest rehabilitation and
conservation.
Another step taken by Indonesia is a regulation, which
curtails tree felling from 30 to 9.1 million cubic meters each
year. A policy on forest rehabilitation and conservation is
a priority program of the Forestry Ministry in addition to
combating illegal logging still rampant in Indonesia, he
said.
The Forestry Minister visited North Sumatra in the
framework of planting 5000 mangrove seedlings symbolically on
Cermin Coast, Sedang Bedegei, North Sumatra.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, July 30, 2007, 00:00