Papua forest (IST)
Jayapura, Jubi – Provincial Government of Papua has rehabilitated forest areas covering 14,525 hectares during between 2010 and 2014, planted as many as 6.2 million stems.
Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs of Papua Province Rosina Upessy, in Jayapura, on Wednesday (5/08/2015), said one of the principal efforts in watershed management (DAS) is a form of regulation of land use and forest rehabilitation efforts as well as soil conservation.
“I remind the working commette of the Forest and Land Rehabilitation (RHL) that rehabilitate degraded land is not just planting trees alone but it should be an ongoing effort to restore the carrying capacity of the watershed,” she said.
It is necessary to realize the functions of forests and land in order to decrease erosion, sedimentation, runoff, improve water balance and enhance the socio-economic benefits, she said.
“The culture of the community as well as the climatic conditions which have their own characteristics also become non-technical barriers in the field. Thus, the involvement of the parties is very important to facilitate the implementation of RHL in the field,” she added.
She explained the damage of watershed in the upstream, midstream and downstream is increasing due to an increase in the utilization of natural resources for human needs.
“It happened since the utilization of natural resources has not been fully pay attention to the stability and sustainability of the carrying capacity of the environment,” she said again.
Therefore natural resource management with watershed management unit should be implemented wisely in order to support the improvement of people’s welfare.
“To maintain the continuity of the basic functions of forests and forest conditions, it is necessary to implement forest rehabilitation,” she said. (*)
