TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - House of Representatives (DPR) Commission IV deputy speaker, Dedi Mulyadi, has urged the government to take immediate action to recover state forests across the nation that are being used as plantation areas and illegal mining activities.

Citing Antaranews, Dedi said on Wednesday, January 20: “We have voiced about the use of illegal land spaces that are quite fantastic and with the losses that far exceeds it.”

Mulyadi said this devastating data has been presented to the Forestry and Environment Ministry during a House hearing. The data itself were collected by members of DPR Commission IV.

In the nationwide total, he said there are 8,456,772,05 hectares of illegal plantations and 8,713,167.58 of illegal mining areas in eight Indonesian regions.

The former Purwakarta Regent claims that the illegal plantations and illegal mining land areas in Indonesian forests are 8.4 million hectares and 8.7 million hectares with financial losses reaching north of hundreds of trillions of rupiah.

Focusing on one region, Dedi Mulyaid said there are 3,934,963 hectares of illegal plantations and 3,570,519.20 hectares of illegal mining areas in Central Kalimantan. Meanwhile in East Kalimantan he said there are 750,829 hectares of illegal plantations and 774,519 hectares-worth of illegal mines.

Dedi Mulyadi continued to explain that West Kalimantan sees 5,748,109 hectares combined for illegal mining and plantations areas. The House member also mentioned major areas in Riau, Jambi, and also in West Java that share the same fate.

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ANTARA