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Government calls for stakeholders to run forest conservation units
The government needs help from nonprofit organizations and other institutions to make up for a lack of management units in 28 million hectares of forest conservation areas, says a government official
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he government needs help from nonprofit organizations and other institutions to make up for a lack of management units in 28 million hectares of forest conservation areas, says a government official.
Out of 522 of the government's forest conservation areas, which consist of bird parks, national parks, forest parks, wildlife preserves and wildlife sanctuaries, only 50 national parks have managements to run the areas.
"There are criticisms that forest fires and illegal logging keep on happening because there is no professional team to manage the areas," the Environment and Forestry Ministry's head of forestry manpower counseling and development (BP2SDMK), Tachrir Fathoni, said on the sidelines of a workshop on rhino and tiger conservation on Tuesday.
The government reportedly to earmark Rp 1.4 trillion (US$107.3 million) for forest conservation area management, with half of it to be used for the public servants' salaries.
Tachrir went on to say that there had been zero growth in the numbers of employees in forest management, which prompted him to call for nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders to help the government.
The government aimed to add 100 new management units this year.
"But it's almost impossible to do so without help from outside," he concluded.
There was a mounting urgency to increase support in the conservation of Sumatran and Javan rhinos as well as Sumatran tigers, which are endangered species.
There were only 57 Javan rhinos left in Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten, less than 100 Sumatran rhinos scattered across Way Kambas, Lampung and Mount Leuser in Aceh, among others, and 400 to 500 Sumatran tigers in places including national parks in Sumatra.
Among the conservation efforts was an enchancement of the effectiveness of national parks and the establishment of intensive protection zones. (fsu)(++++)
