GARUDA INDONESIA CONDUCTS TREE PLANTING IN ACEH

Banda Aceh, Jan 9 (ANTARA) - PT Garuda Indonesia in cooperation with the International Leuser Foundation (YLI) and the provincial government of Aceh has carried out tree planting to help sustain forests in the region.

Its president director, Emirsyah Satar, said here on Saturday the planting of 24,000 trees reflected the state-owned airline company's care on forest preservation and community economic improvement.

"We planted trees along the Krueng Jambo Aye river area in the subdistrict of Bidari, Aceh Timur, covering 250 hectares of land involving local population," he said.

The tree-planting event was launched by state enterprise minister Mustafa Abu Bakar in Banda Aceh, attended by a number of officials from central and provincial administrations.

The event is the continuation of the "one passenger one tree" program, carried out earlier in Central Kalimantan, Yogyakarta and West Nusa Tenggara.

The program is part of the company's corporate social responsibility program.

"The planting of thousands of trees is also aimed at regions which are frequently flooded," he said.

He hoped the program which would cost Rp1 trillion for the region in 2010 would give a positive impact on forest sustainability and economic development in the region.

He said the program would be continued to the future. "We will also conduct it in other regions which are often flooded," he said.

Minister Mustafa Abu Bakar meanwhile said on the occasion that the effort must be done maximally so that the wish to safeguare the Leuser ecosystem would be realized.

"The program must be carried out seriously so that the pace of deforestation could be cut," he said.

Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf on the occasion called on all parties to make the "Green Aceh Vision" become a culture for further development so that forest sustainability would remain safeguarded.

"We hope all parties would implement the Green Aceh Vision continuously as part of efforts to preserve forests and ecosystem and not only for publicity," he said.

Irwandi said the implementation of logging moratorium in Aceh reflected the seriousnees of the regional government in safeguarding the region's forests.

He said the region with 4.6 million population could produce a lot of carbon, 187 tons per hectare a year from its Leuser forest covering 2.5 million hectares of land and 134 tons per hectare a year from Ulue Masen forest covering 743,000 hectares.

"We will use the funds from carbon trade for empowering the economy of the people living around the forests," he said.