GOVT NEEDS ADDITIONAL RP675 BILLION FOR FOREST DEVELOPMENT

Jakarta, March 14 (ANTARA) - The Forestry Ministry needs an additional Rp675 billion from the 2010 revised budget to rehabilitate and plant trees on 13 million arid land in the country, the forestry minister said.

"We have to overcome land degradation and the only way to do that is to conduct a large-scale tree plantings. We hope we can use additional funds amounting to Rp675 billion from the 2010 revised state budget," Forestry Ministry Zulkifli Hasan said.

He said that besides the funds from the revised budget, the forestry ministry also hoped that Rp450 billion from the ministry's demand deposit service interest could also be used for the planting of the trees on the arid land..

The forestry ministry has to focused its attention on large-scale tree planting in West Java's Bopunjur area which had underwent a massive land degradation.

Damage to the Bopunjur areas could cause disaster to its down stream areas such as Jakarta and its vicinity.

"The areas of Bopunjur and Sukabumi have been in critical conditions and seriously damaged. These areas needed extra hard work to rehabilitate them," the minister said.