TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Data revealed that the Jambi Province lost 189.125 acres of forest throughout 2012 to 2016 due to deforestation and forest degradation, and illegal gold mines, especially in the western part of Jambi.
Communication Manager at Warsi Indonesia Conservation Community (KKI) Rudi Syaf, said that based on Warsi’s data interpretation in 2012, Jambi had a total of 1.159.559 acres-wide forest. The number suddenly drops to 970,434 acres in 2016.
"Based on the Lansat 8 [data] interpretation conducted by the Geographic Information System Unit of KKI Warsi, from 2012 to 2016, Jambi had lost 189,125 acres of forest, equals to eight football fields per hour," Rudi stated.
The degrading number of forest has caused ecological disasters throughout Jambi, especially in the western part of the province where floods and landslides occurred.
"This condition contradicts last year's situation. Last year we endured great forest fires but this year we endured extreme dampness. This condition gives you a picture that there’s something wrong with our natural resource management," Rudi said.
In relation to the situation, Warsi urged the government to carry out efforts to restore the environment and also to reduce corporate domination in land ownership. Warsi argued that the most important effort is to directly involve the society in resource management process.
"From our experiences, deforestation rate can reduce to zero percent if forests are managed by the people. For example, the management of the Bukit Panjang Rantau Bayur area at Bungo District being managed by local people with a village forest system, deforestation rate has been reduced to zero from 2013 to 2015," Rudi explained.
ANTARA
