Major landslide threatens Dieng villagers

Agus Maryono ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Wonosobo   |  Thu, 07/02/2009 1:34 PM  |  The Archipelago

The heavily deforested highlands area of Mount Dieng in Central Java poses a very real threat to thousands of villagers living on its slope, with a major landslide likely to occur, officials have warned.

"The conditions are extremely dangerous to us all. A landslide strikes almost every year during the rainy season," Fahmi Hidayat, a local from the Dieng recovery team, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"A landslide could put the lives of hundreds of thousands of local people at risk," he added.

The Dieng highlands, a 600,000-hectare area of land, sits 2000 meters above sea level and has been seriously affected environmentally from deforestation.

Fahmi said the latest data indicates that nearly 8,000 hectares of the total highland area is critically damaged.

"It's very worrying," he said.

He said much of the damage had occurred due to the "uncontrollable" conversion of protected forest areas into farming land by local villagers.

Many people have erected buildings as their permanent houses in the highlands area.

Around 100 residents live in every square kilometer of the highlands area, making it a very densely populated area.

"This puts strong pressure on the available natural resources," Fahmi said.

In the future, environmental degradation could threaten the water sources needed by people living below the highlands, he said.

"Quite a significant amount of land has been converted in the area. It is an upstream zone for areas at the banks of the Serayu river and is home to various species of protected rare animals.

"But now destruction and extinction is rampant, while efforts to recover the Dieng highlands are still not effective," Fahmi said.

The Wonosobo administration's recovery team hosted a three-day workshop to discuss plans to recover the critical area.

The event, which ended Wednesday, was organized jointly with the Central Java forestry office and other relevant agencies.

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