Forests in Sumatra Estimated to Face Extinction in Next 25 Years
22 July 2017 09:08 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The current poor condition of forests in Sumatra will extinct in the span of 25 years if serious measures are not taken to conserve them. The study is based on observation from Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI) Warsi.
In the past 25 years, Sumatra has lost more than 9 hectares of forests.
"In 1990, forests covered more than 20 hectares of Sumatra. However in 2015 only 11 hectares of forests or 44 percent covered Sumatra. If this continues and there is no real effort to conserve the forests, then there will be no forests in Sumatra in the next 25 years," KKI Warsi supervisory board member Sukri Sa’ad said on Friday, July 21.
Sukri explained that based on an analysis of images of Landsat 8 Satellite carried out by Warsi in 2015, critical land or open areas increased 556 percent. This is due to conversion into plantation areas as much as 141 percent and into industrial plantation forest as much as 381 percent.
Such a significant forest loss entails great impact to people who live around the forest areas.
“Their life will be marginalized and their access and involvement to conserve the forests are deprived," he added. Another impact is damages to ecology and the loss of germ plasma and crucial biodiversity reserve. This condition triggers ecological disaster and climate change.
SYAIPUL BAKHORI
