"All parties must maintain protected forest areas in a bid to preserve the Lake Sentarum National Park (TNDS), so that protected forests in Kapuas Hulu as the lungs of the world can be secured for the offsprings` benefits," the Kapuas Hulu district head, AM Nasir said here Monday.
The Kapuas Hulu`s width is about 29,850 square kilometers, 56.51 percent of which had been designated for conservation area, AM Nasir said.
"We do not want protected and conservation forest destroyed again after rampant illegal logging occurred in 1980 the district head added.
AM Nasir stressed that he will revoke the operational license of any oil palm company which was trying to operate in protected forests.
Meanwhile, Susanto, top leader of the Sinar Mas group said that his company has a commitment to maintain the protected and the conservation forests.
According to the West Kalimantan World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) data, TNDS has hundreds of fauna species, including mammals totaling 147 species, nearly 64 percent of mammals in Kalimantan in TNDS, 31 species of reptiles, one of them is crocodile frog (Crocodylus raninus) that in Asia had been declared extinct since 500 years ago, AFES species of fauna (birds) totaling 310, and as many as 265 species of fish, or more than all freshwater fish species in the entire European continent.
In addition, Kapuas Hulu district has protected areas, such as national parks and protected forests around 1,626,868 hectares or 54.59 percent, forest cultivation area of about 764,543 hectares or 25.65 per cent and agricultural cultivation area of about 588,481 hectares of the lake instead, or 19.75 percent, and the lake area around 17,925 hectares.(*)
(A057/f001/HAJM/a014)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
