Jakarta - The government has no intention of ending encroachment by illegal loggers at Kerinci Seblat National Park on Sumatra Island, an activist said on Friday.
Musnardi Munir of the Nature Conservation Alliance, a nongovernmental organization based in Jambi Province, said that more than 200,000 hectares of the park had already been lost to illegal logging.
The national park straddles four provinces — West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra — and borders 13 districts, covering an area of around 1.4 million hectares.
“The illegal encroachment has been going on since it [the national park] was established, but there has been no significant move from the government to end it,” Musnardi said, adding that the authorities always put the blame on a lack of law enforcers.
“But, if they really wanted to protect the park, they just need to add more officers,” he said.
He said the illegal encroachment was worsening as a result of the provincial government`s development planning.
“They [the government] are planning on building roads through the national park to provide better access for local residents,” he said.
Musnardi said illegal encroachment in the national park area was mostly carried out by outsiders, clearing the land to open up new farming areas.
Meanwhile, Kholid Indarto, a senior officer at the national park, said more data on land clearance was needed because no research had been conducted into the issue.
“The data needs to be closely examined because there could be reasons other than illegal encroachment for the land clearance,” Indarto said. “It could have been caused by forest fires or landslides, not just by land clearance.”
He said the data should also be backed up with satellite imaging.
“In 2004, we used satellite imaging to obtain data that indicated that around 11 percent of the land within the national park had been cleared,” he said.
Yoan Dinata of Flora and Fauna International, a nongovernmental organization that has a unit dedicated to stopping land clearance in Kerinci Seblat, said illegal encroachment was the biggest contributor to the environmental degradation affecting the park.
“It is mostly carried by outsiders who clear the land for farming,” he said. “But they usually get away with it because there is still no strong law enforcement on the issue.”
“We only have 108 police to operate in an area of 1.4 million hectares spread over four provinces,” Yoan said. “It is not enough. We`ve already asked for more but we need policemen of a high caliber.”
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com (January 2, 2008)
Musnardi Munir of the Nature Conservation Alliance, a nongovernmental organization based in Jambi Province, said that more than 200,000 hectares of the park had already been lost to illegal logging.
The national park straddles four provinces — West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra — and borders 13 districts, covering an area of around 1.4 million hectares.
“The illegal encroachment has been going on since it [the national park] was established, but there has been no significant move from the government to end it,” Musnardi said, adding that the authorities always put the blame on a lack of law enforcers.
“But, if they really wanted to protect the park, they just need to add more officers,” he said.
He said the illegal encroachment was worsening as a result of the provincial government`s development planning.
“They [the government] are planning on building roads through the national park to provide better access for local residents,” he said.
Musnardi said illegal encroachment in the national park area was mostly carried out by outsiders, clearing the land to open up new farming areas.
Meanwhile, Kholid Indarto, a senior officer at the national park, said more data on land clearance was needed because no research had been conducted into the issue.
“The data needs to be closely examined because there could be reasons other than illegal encroachment for the land clearance,” Indarto said. “It could have been caused by forest fires or landslides, not just by land clearance.”
He said the data should also be backed up with satellite imaging.
“In 2004, we used satellite imaging to obtain data that indicated that around 11 percent of the land within the national park had been cleared,” he said.
Yoan Dinata of Flora and Fauna International, a nongovernmental organization that has a unit dedicated to stopping land clearance in Kerinci Seblat, said illegal encroachment was the biggest contributor to the environmental degradation affecting the park.
“It is mostly carried by outsiders who clear the land for farming,” he said. “But they usually get away with it because there is still no strong law enforcement on the issue.”
“We only have 108 police to operate in an area of 1.4 million hectares spread over four provinces,” Yoan said. “It is not enough. We`ve already asked for more but we need policemen of a high caliber.”
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com (January 2, 2008)
