Forestry Minister Supports Intensive Silviculture Technique

Yogyakarta, Dec 18 (ANTARA) - Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan supports Intensive Silviculture, a set of techniques used in forest rehabilitation to increase the productivity of forests. "We fully support the methods developed by Gajah Mada University (UGM)`s Faculty of Forestry, and therefore, we are going to make a government regulation for the use of these methods in the management of forest productivity," Zulkifli said here on Monday. The minister noted that he would support Intensive Silviculture through the amendment of government regulation, so that reforestation funds could be channeled into tree plantation. "Forest users and managers should take advantage of the Intensive Silviculture technique from a well-adapted academic study," he noted. Further, the minister said he had seen the positive results of Intensive Silviculture, which was applied in several forest areas in Kalimantan, achieving 8-10 percent forest productivity, compared to natural forests. According to him, forest managers who used this technique were able to collect the high-quality wood they desired by managing only 10 percent of the forest area. "The Intensive Silviculture technique has been applied to more than 70,000 hectares of forest in various locations to increase forest productivity by 8 to 10 folds, with a short harvest period," he said.