Military To Help In Forest And Land Conservation

Jakarta, Feb 7 (Antara) - The forestry ministry and the Indonesian National Military (TNI) together set reforestation target at 100,000 hectares this year. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said cooperation between the ministry and TNI date back to 2011 when the two institutions agreed to rehabilitate conservation forests AND LANDS. In 2011, the ministry and TNI signed a memorandum of understanding on rehabilitation of conservation forests, Zulkifli said here on Friday. "Implementation of the agreement had been a success," he said when opening a coordination meeting with TNI on forest conservation. In the three years after the signing of the MoU rehabilitation totaled 34,448 hectares in 2011, up to 44,984 hectares in 2012 and 42,345 hectares in 2013, he said. In 2014, and the following years, rehabilitation of forest and conservation land are expected to continue to increase, he said. He said lands in critical condition in Indonesia reached 27.29 million hectares based on data in 2011. The forestry ministry has set target to rehabilitate at least 2.5 million hectares of forests and lands in 2011-2014 or 500,000 hectares per year, he said. The target for development of urban forests was set at 6,000 hectares with rehabilitation of mangrove forests and peat land at 40,000 hectares. At the coordination meeting a new MoU was signed between the forestry ministry, the TNI and the nation`s carrier PT Garuda Indonesia on forest conservation. The agreement was signed by Zulkifli Hasan, TNI chief Gen. DR. Moeldoko and President of PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk Emirsyah Satar. On Thursday, the forestry ministry signed a MoU with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on ways of eliminating malfeasance in the forest management. Corruption has been known to be rampant in the country forest management especially in the licensing procedure. Zulkifli said the forestry ministry would soon revise at least 12 regulations on forest management in a bid to eliminate misuse of license and corruption. In addition to prevention of corruption, the cooperation with KPK also include improvement of bureaucracy especially in the licensing procedure.