Makassar, S Sulawesi (ANTARA Sulsel) - Some 682.784 hectares of forest or about a quarter of South Sulawesi's 2.1 million hectares of woods is in critical condition, an environmentalist said.
According to data from South Sulawesi's Forestry Office the 682.784 hectares of critical land is divided into 369.956,5 hectares of inward forest land dan 312.827,7 hectares of outward forest land.
"This condition is very concerning. All the rehabilitation programs the local government has carried out seem unable to balance the ongoing deforestation," an activist from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) for South Sulawesi, Indah Pattinaware, said here on Thursday.
Indah predicted the decreasing of forest land in South Sulawesi would continue in the coming years with the decreasing of 10-30 hectares of forest per year while rehabilitation projects to prevent such disasters were predicted to take at least 30 years to show results.
Several reasons, she said, could be the cause of the deforestation such as forest conversion for plantation and the lack of awareness among people to preserve forest areas.
Some of the efforts the local government had made to prevent the deforestation from continuing were programming National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation and promoting a Go Green program with its slogan "One Man, One Tree".
The latter's program is conducted based on a research from the United States' scientists saying that a tree could absorb about six kilograms of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as well as repair the quality of the air around the area.
The goverment has allocated Rp2.05 billion fund from the National Budget (APBN) to support the target to repair 20.000 hectares of forest per year. Local government is also providing special budget to support the program.
"However, all programs which will consume billions of Rupiahs will be useless if not followed by maintaining efforts especially those trees already planted as part of rehabilitation program," said Indah.
(T.SYS/A014)
According to data from South Sulawesi's Forestry Office the 682.784 hectares of critical land is divided into 369.956,5 hectares of inward forest land dan 312.827,7 hectares of outward forest land.
"This condition is very concerning. All the rehabilitation programs the local government has carried out seem unable to balance the ongoing deforestation," an activist from the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) for South Sulawesi, Indah Pattinaware, said here on Thursday.
Indah predicted the decreasing of forest land in South Sulawesi would continue in the coming years with the decreasing of 10-30 hectares of forest per year while rehabilitation projects to prevent such disasters were predicted to take at least 30 years to show results.
Several reasons, she said, could be the cause of the deforestation such as forest conversion for plantation and the lack of awareness among people to preserve forest areas.
Some of the efforts the local government had made to prevent the deforestation from continuing were programming National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation and promoting a Go Green program with its slogan "One Man, One Tree".
The latter's program is conducted based on a research from the United States' scientists saying that a tree could absorb about six kilograms of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as well as repair the quality of the air around the area.
The goverment has allocated Rp2.05 billion fund from the National Budget (APBN) to support the target to repair 20.000 hectares of forest per year. Local government is also providing special budget to support the program.
"However, all programs which will consume billions of Rupiahs will be useless if not followed by maintaining efforts especially those trees already planted as part of rehabilitation program," said Indah.
(T.SYS/A014)