Next to its mining industry, Central Sulawesi is promoting its forestry industry in an effort to encourage economic growth and generate more jobs to reduce poverty.
The province is blessed with some 4.3 million hectares of tropical forest, which includes 1.4 million ha of protected forest, 500,587 ha of production forest, 1.4 million ha of limited production forest, 252,000 ha of converted forest and 677,000 ha of eco-tourism and wildlife reserves.
The province's annual forest production quota for whole logs is set at 114,000 cubic meters, sawn timber 90,000 cubic meters, ebony 708,000 cubic meters, rattan 13.9 million meters and resin 1.4 million cubic meters.
The province is also looking to promote its marine resources, Governor Bandjela Paliudju told The Jakarta Post recently.
Its sea territory is around three times the size of its land area, encompassing some 193,000 square kilometers and spanning from the east in Tolo and Tomini bays, to the west -- the Makassar Strait and part of the Sulawesi Sea.
Its marine and fishery areas have been categorized into the Central Sulawesi Coastal Resources Management Zones.
Zone 1 encompasses the Sulawesi Sea and Makassar Strait, which includes Palu city, Donggala, Toli-Toli and Buol regencies. Zone 2 covers the Tomini Bay area (or Parigi Moutong, Poso and Banggao regencies) and Zone 3 covers the Folo Bay area, ranging from Banggai and Banggai Islands to Morowali.
"Central Sulawesi is a very rich province based on its natural environment, but we have not been able to develop it because of a lack of investment. The area is currently managed by local communities," Paliudju said.
Central Sulawesi currently exports as much as 1,600 tons of fish to various countries annually.
In the power sector, Central Sulawesi has several large-scale hydro-power stations, such as those located on the Sulewana River and Lindu Lake, which can generate a total of 714 megawatts, while medium-scale stations have a total capacity of 28,564 MW and small-scale stations 804.8 MW.
"PT Bukaka is currently building the Sulewana hydro-electric power station in Poso," Paliudju said.
Construction began in April 2005 and is hoped to have a capacity of around 740 MW. The firm has completed building the Poso 1 hydro-electric station (160 MW) and the Poso 3 (300-400 MW) and is still working on the Poso 2 power station (180 MW).
Central Sulawesi is also potentially rich in solar power energy, with 8,025 solar power units available in every regency and city, generating a total output of 1,650 kWh.
The area's oil production is concentrated in the Tiaka Field in Morowali regency and Banggai regency and reaches 16.5 million to 23 million barrels per day. The natural gas reserves in the Banggai regency are estimated to be around 1.6 trillion cubic feet.
"We receive a huge amounts from taxes from mining companies which support the annual province budget," the governor said.
