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The peatland rehabilitation project in Central Kalimantan
will need Rp 3.23 trillion (US$358 million) to get of the ground, with
most of the money being taken from the budget allocations of the
ministries involved in the project.
It is estimated that a total of Rp 10 trillion will be required to
complete the project by 2011.
Initial funding of Rp 256 billion will be required this year alone,
Central Kalimantan governor Teras Narang said while presenting an
action plan during a workshop Tuesday.
"The local government may only be able to contribute a small portion of
the money needed," Teras said, mentioning a figure of some Rp 4
billion, which could be paid out of the provincial budget this year.
"We also hope that funding for the project, which will only affect
three regencies, will not be tied to the central government's routine
allocations for the whole province, which are needed to finance
infrastructure development throughout all 13 regencies."
State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta said
that the central government might seek to cover part of the cost
through debt-swap agreements or grants from countries interested in the
project's environmental aspects.
"Several countries have offered debt swaps for the project. We will
consider any and all financing options," Paskah said.
Teras said that the Netherlands had agreed to give a 12-million-euro
grant to repair the damaged peatland drainage system.
The peatland reclamation project in Central Kalimantan, which the
government launched in March, is part of an effort to salvage something
from former president Soeharto's grandiose 1995 plan to turn 1.4
million hectares of peatland in the province into agricultural land.
The poorly-planned project was, however, later abandoned and terminated
in 1998, after some Rp 1.2 trillion had been wasted. Some 64,000
transmigrants from Java were left stranded on land they could not
cultivate, with the upshot of the project being an environmental
disaster.
Only 6,000 hectares were successfully reclaimed as forestland and
70,000 hectares as agricultural land, with the rest being left as a
barren wasteland. Forests in the vicinity of the drained peat bogs have
also been destroyed by illegal logging.
The government has stressed that the peatland project will now focus on
environmental conservation, rather than seeking economic benefit.
"Some 80 percent of the peatland will be for environmental
conservation," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said.
"Besides, by aiming for benefits from conserving the environment in
general, we are also aiming to reduce the risk of the peatland catching
fire."
The project plans to replenish up to 897,400 hectares of forest and
wildlife reserves, including 27,100 hectares of mangrove forest, with
only 279,500 hectares being developed for agricultural production in
the form of plantations and grazing land.
The government also wants significantly reduce the frequency of forest
fires.
Indonesia has some 20 million hectares of peatland, which is prone to
catching fire during the dry season. These fires result in serious haze
problems every year that also affect neighboring countries.
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