January 15, 2013
SOME
of the richest and most biodiverse forests in Indonesia will soon be opened up
for commercial exploitation under a plan drafted by the new government of Aceh.
The
chairman of the Aceh parliament's spatial planning committee, Mr Anwar (who
goes by only one name) has confirmed the plan would reduce the total forest
cover from about 68 per cent of the province's land mass to 45 per cent.
Most
of the newly threatened areas are lowland forests, home to orang-utans, tigers,
Sumatran rhinos and other endangered species. Conservationists say the plan
drastically increases the danger of their extinction.
Much
of the forest has been designated ''production forest'' since the 1990s, but
these areas were saved from logging and agriculture initially because they
provided a hiding place for Aceh's armed Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) insurgents,
and lately by a moratorium imposed by former governor Irwandi Yusuf.
However,
local newspaper The Globe Journal has reported the new draft spatial
plan prepared under the recently elected governor, Zaini Abdullah, would open
these areas for production.
The
plan must still be approved by Jakarta, and conservationist Mike Griffiths
hopes that will provide an opportunity to have it rejected.
The
head of forest landscape in Aceh's Department of Forestry, Saminuddin B. Tou,
told Fairfax Media that, in his view, ''it is time for logging concessions to
be reactivated''. Asked if Mr Zaini was more pro-development than his
predecessor, Mr Saminuddin said: ''I think he's proportional, whereas the
previous governor, Irwandi, opened more areas for forests.''
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