[Nasional-e] World Bank to stop aid for RI's national park

[Ambon]

The Jakarta Post
Sept. 30, 2002

World Bank to stop aid for RI's national park

PADANG, West Sumatra (Agencies): World Bank assistance for the Kerinci
Seblat National Park conservation project will be stopped on Sept. 30 this
year, Irfani, a World Bank staff member involved in the project, said here
over the weekend.
"There has not been an official statement about the stoppage of the
assistance. But I think it has to do with the Indonesian government's
maintenance of the condition of the park," Irfani said.
Before deciding to stop the assistance, he said, the bank warned the park's
management it would reduce the assistance from the agreed upon US$19.1
million to $9.3 million.
"Not only that, the grant provided for the project was reduced from $15
million to $11.3 million," he said.
The 1.48 million-hectare national park is spread over nine districts in four
provinces in the central part of Sumatra island.
The head of the Kerinci Seblat National Park, Listya Kusumawardhani, said
that some 10 percent of the land in the park had been damaged by illegal
loggers and forest dwellers.
Some 12,219 hectares of the park's forested area in Pesisir Selatan
district, West Sumatra, has been destroyed by illegal loggers, while another
1,573 hectares has been turned into non-forested areas.
Some 16,744 hectares of the park in Solok district, West Sumatra, has been
deforested, while 41 hectares of forest in Sawalunto Sijunjung district has
been damaged.
In Kerinci district, Jambi province, some 24,806 hectares of the 197,871
hectares of the national park has been damaged, while in Merangin district
2,660 hectares of forest area has been damaged.
In Rejanglebong district, Bengkulu, some 15,576 hectares has been
deforested, followed by North Bengkulu district with at least 4,419 hectares
of damaged forest area. In Musirawas district, South Sumatra, 21,218
hectares forest has been spoiled.
Citing a recent report called The State of the Forest: Indonesia, published
jointly by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch and Forest
Watch Indonesia, DPA said that Indonesia is losing nearly two million
hectares of forest every year, up from one million hectares annually in the
1980s. The report attributed the illegal logging to lawlessness and
corruption in Indonesia.