State Companies to Rehabilitate Forests

By Barrie | September 8th, 2007 | No Comments

The Forestry Ministry has assigned state-owned forestry companies to carry out the forest and land rehabilitation movement (Gerhan) program covering a total of 56,000 hectares at a cost of Rp256 billion.

Director general of social land and forest rehabilitation (RLPS) of the Forestry Ministry Darori said in Jakarta Friday that under Presidential Decree No No.89 of 2007, the government has assigned state forestry companies to implement the Gerhan program according to the article in the Antara News.

“For Java, we recommended public corporation Perhutani to deal with 35,000 hectares of arid land at a cost of Rp156 billion,” Darori said on Thursday.

And for places outside Java island, he added, the forestry ministry assigned PT Inhutani I-V to rehabilitate 20,000 hectares of arid land.

Darori also said that all the funding for the Gerhan program is drawn from the State Budget, not from foreign grants or loans. “Well any way if there is a grant for the rehabilitation of the environment, thank God,” he said.

He also expressed optimism that the target of Gerhan in 2007 covering a total of 900,000 hectares at a cost of Rp3.3 trillion could be reached. “We are optimistic about this because we have also allocated Rp 5.6 trillion in maintenance funding,” he said.

Touching on the 59 dried up river catchment areas, which is prioritized under the Gerhan project, Darori admitted that investment is still very low. “Two million hectres of the arid river catchment regions must be cultivated. In terms of percentage, it is still very small, but it is expected that the area of the arid land would be reduced.”

The increasing coverage of the arid land under the Gerhan program, Darori said, was also thanks to the optimal cooperation with the relevant regions under Presidential Decree no 89, signed by President SBY on September 3, 2007.