T

he government has decided to relocate people living around Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta and Central Java and is planning a national park and protected forest land in a bid to prevent casualties in the event of any future eruptions.

The decision was made during a meeting on rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Merapi area at the Vice Presidential office on Friday.

“Wherever possible, the area should become a national park that will be a landmark of Yogyakarta in the future,” said Vice President Boediono, as quoted on the vice presidential website on Friday.

Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Central Java Governor Bibit Waluyo and a number of cabinet ministers attended the meeting.

Under the plan, the government would shift the function of some 1,310 hectares categorized as “most impacted” by last year’s Mount Merapi eruption to national park land or protected forest area.

The plan says families in Yogyakarta living on the most severely impacted areas affected by the Merapi Mount eruption would be relocated to a village that was now used as temporary shelter. Each family would be awarded 100 square meters of land.

The affected families in Central Java are required to seek their own relocation and the government would then pay for the land.

The government would also provide an additional incentive of Rp 30 million (US$3,450) per family to help build their new houses.

The government earlier relocated some 2,636 families in Yogyakarta and another 174 families in Central Java when Merapi erupted in October 2010.

The rehabilitation and reconstruction program needed some Rp 1.35 trillion to be allocated between 2011 and 2013 to rebuild in the two provinces.

Of the budget, some Rp 247 billion would be used for housing, Rp 417 billion for infrastructure, Rp 222 billion for economic improvement, Rp 149 billion for social affairs and the remainder for other sectors.

About Rp 292 billion was needed to revive the forests in the area in Yogyakarta and Rp 3.75 billion in Central Java.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said his office would make a detailed report of the area that would be set as national park land and protected forest area.

There are currently 6,400 hectares of land around Mount Merapi area which had been named as national park. Under the forestry law, people are prohibited from utilizing the rich resources in national park, including trees.

The people are also prohibited from cutting trees in protected forests, but were still to use other resources such as fruit.

Mount Merapi erupted in October last year, claiming the lives of over 100 people.

An avalanche of blistering gas and rock fragments raced down the volcano in 2006, killing two people.

A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60 people and 1,300 people died in a blast in 1930.

There are more than 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia.