TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) acknowledged that many forest areas in the location of the new capital city in East Kalimantan have been damaged. At present, 250,000 hectares of the new capital area has lost its forest area.

"Such as in Soeharto Forest (Conservation Forest)," said Bappenas Deputy for Regional Development, Rudy Soeprihadi Prawiradinata, in a discussion at Bappenas, on Tuesday, 11 February 2020.

Rudi went on to say that the deforestation issue in Borneo was also one of the reasons for the government to relocate the capital. The government, said Rudy, wants to ensure that the environment in the region can be maintained well. "We want to go there to repair (the forests)," he said.

The government identified a number of options for reforestation in Kalimantan, which includes returning 75 percent of the more than 250,000 thousand hectares of land into a natural green area. Then, 50 percent of the city area (56,000 hectares) will become Green Open Space (RTH).

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry Expert Staff in the field of Natural Resource Economics, Laksmi Wijayanti, also guaranteed that the new capital city will be built to restore the function of the forests in Borneo.

Thus, one of the steps going to be taken is to rehabilitate critical land and gradual enrichment of vegetation. This stage will be carried out on 5,000 hectares priority areas, from 2020 to 2024.

The government decided to move the capital to the districts of Penajam Paser Utara and Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan Province. The groundbreaking of the project is targeted to kick off in 2020.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO | DIO SUHENDA (Intern Translator)