News via RSS
Rights & Tenure in the News »
Environmental NGO forum calls for "forest cutting interval" to save Indonesia forests
Padang (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) is urging the central government and all regional administrations in Indonesia to implement a "forest cutting interval" to protect the country from total deforestation, a local Walhi executive said.
"Walhi
has been proposing the measure since 2002 and is repeating it now on
the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5," Khalid Syaifullah,
executive director of Walhi`s West Sumatra branch, said here Tuesday.
Until now, only the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) provincial
administration had heeded the call and was planning to impose a ban on
forest cutting later this month, he said. Walhi was hoping the NAD
administration`s action would prompt all other regional governments in
the country to follow suit, Khalid said.
According to data
collected by Walhi, only 62 percent of the country`s land territory was
still covered by forests but the pressures of developments and economic
interests were causing forest degradation to occur at an ever
increasing rate. "Something must be done about this situation if we
don`t want the country to become completely deforested and meet a
greater disaster in the future," he said.
Walhi was
therefore proposing the declaration of a forest cutting interval of 15
years during which no new forest concessions would be issued and no
forest concession would be extended, Khalid said. To overcome the
shortages in wood supply to industries that would happen as a
consequence of the forest cutting interval, the country should import
timber. During the period, a comprehensive check should be conducted on
the performance of forest industries and efforts made to save critical
forests through reforestation, in addition to a complete halt to all
tree-cutting activities. The government should also help those people
whose livelihood had depended on forest-cutting activities, Khalid said.
Article found on AntaraNews.
Wahli
is the Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI - Friends of the Earth
Indonesia), the largest forum of non-government and community-based
organisations in Indonesia. See its website here.
Posted By Anne-Sophie Samjee at 10:35am on June 07, 2007
Comments: 0
This blog may contain links to external websites. These links should not be construed as endorsements by Rights and Resources of the content present. They are provided for informational purposes only.
