By Bernama
Serang : Forestry Minister MS Ka’ban said Indonesia would need 20 years to completely rehabilitate 55 million hectares of denuded lands across the country, Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported.
“If it takes the central government and local administrations one year to rehabilitate two million hectares of critical land, they will need 20 years to finish regreening 55 million hectares of critical land,” the minister said after launching a tree planting programme on a former mining site in Sindang Sari villate, here on Friday.
Ka’ban said Indonesia had been carrying out regreening programmes since 1970 but the problem of critical land was never solved because the efforts were made perfunctorily.
As a result, he said, some 59 million hectares of land had remained in critical condition. From 2003 to 2007, various programmes were implemented to rehabilitate critical land so that its acreage was reduced from 59 million hectares to 55 million hectares.
For this year, the government had set itself the target of planting trees on 1.7 million hectares of critical land.
He said in order to accelerate the rehabilitation programme, the central government should work together with regional administrations, local mining businessmen and regional legislative assemblies to earmark more funds for the planting of trees on critical land.