P

ALU: Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Friday that his ministry planned to plant 1.5 billion trees across Indonesia this year to rehabilitate forest areas and critically threatened land.

“In 2010 the ministry had a target to plant 1 billion trees. We planted 1.39 billion. We are confident we can also surpass the target this year,” Zulkifli said at a graduation ceremony at Muhammadiyah University in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Antara news agency reported.

Zulkifli said the Forestry Ministry also planned to rehabilitate 500,000 hectares of forest and watershed areas this year and establish another 500,000 hectares of industrial and public forests.

“Planting trees is a good way to prevent disasters and counter the effects of climate change,” Zulkifli said.

He also visited a forest area in Sigi regency while in the province (pictured, right). He inspected a 5,000-hectare special-purposed forest that was declared an academic forest area under the management of the university. — JP