Bali falls far short in reforestation effort

HIJAUKAN LAHAN KERING-Aksi penanaman pohon dilakukan pemerintah bersama masyarakat di lahan kering di Desa Tulamben, Kabupaten Karangasem, yang terletak tepat di kaki Gunung Agung, Jumat (2/12). Hingga Desember ini, Bali baru mampu menanam 724.700 batang pohon dari total 8,59 juta batang pohon yang ditargetkan tanam dalam tahun ini untuk menyukseskan program tanam satu milyar pohon karena terkendala musim hujan yang belum merata. (photo by: Ni Komang Erviani)

Ni Komang Erviani, The Jakarta Post, Karangasem | Sat, 12/03/2011 10:38 AM

Bali has failed to achieve it’s target of planting 8.5 million trees on 21,031 hectares in a massive reforestation campaign. The campaign is part of a national program of planting 1 billion trees launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year.

The province has so far only managed to plant 724,700 trees, or 8.4 percent of the target set for the February 2011-January 2012 period, said I Gusti Ngurah Wiranatha, head of the provincial forestry agency.

He blamed the weather for the failure, claiming that many regions of Bali had not experienced the rainfall normally expected.

“The problem is that the rainy season has yet to arrive throughout Bali. If we plant the trees, we’re worried that the trees will die,” he said on the sidelines of the planting of 1,000 trees on parched land in Tulamben village in Karangasem regency.

Wiranatha said the tree planting would be prioritized in areas with a high intensity of rain.

“We have only planted in Tabanan, Jembrana and Bangli, and in some parts of Karangasem.”

The tree planting is carried out in forested areas and previously unforested areas on lands belonging to local people. On such land, the planted trees are mostly those which have an economic value so as to encourage people to take care of the trees.

“We are hopeful that the planting will achieve beneficial results and reach at least 80 percent of the target,” Wiranatha said.

He said the results of the planting was very much determined by the weather but that the most important thing was the number of trees that grew well, not necessarily the number of trees that had been planted.

The tree planting in Karangasem was held in observance of the national Tree Planting Day. The event was part of a bigger campaign targeting the planting of 12,000 trees.

“Due to the weather problems, particularly the uneven intensity of rain, we have only been able to plant 1,000 trees. These trees will be taken care of by the farmers of Tulamben village.”

The farmers have committed to plant the remaining 11,000 trees during the rainy season.

Wiranatha said that Bali would make greater efforts to meet the target of planting 8.59 million trees by the deadline of Jan. 31 next year.

“We still have two more months. We’re optimistic we can still achieve the target.”

Even if they missed their target, the planting would be continued next year, he added.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, who led the tree-planting campaign in Karangasem, hoped people would be more aware of the campaign and participate in the planting of 1 billion trees.

The campaign, which is in line with the province’s Bali Clean and Green program, is crucial to help solving environmental and economic problems, as parched and eroded land can lead to problems causing poverty.

“We’re still facing the problems of drought and water crisis. Therefore, we need to plant more trees.”

Karangasem Regent Wayan Geredeg said people in the regency, where most of the land was relatively barren, were now more aware of the economic and environmental benefits of planting trees.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/12/03/bali-falls-far-short-reforestation-effort.html