Minister: all types of forests must be given compensation

Minister Kaban said that Indonesia received appreciation for its achievement in reducing forest degradation in the Forest-11 plus 18 meeting attended by 18 countries having tropical forests and advanced countries such as Germany, Britain, the US and Japan which had been held on the sidelines of the 13th COP UNFCCC.

The forest degradation rate between 1997 and 2000 in Indonesia was 2.8 million hectares, and the figure decreased to 1.08 million hectares between 2001 and 2005.

Kaban said that his ministry had disbursed rehabilitation funds amounting to one billion US dollars, an increased of 800 percent from the previous period.

The Indonesian forestry ministry had set a target to plant trees on a total of five million hectares of arid land.