Aceh to implement logging moratorium

Banda Aceh, Indonesia - The Aceh provincial administration will soon issue a policy to implement a moratorium on logging activities in an effort to protect the province's forests, Governor IrwandiYusuf said.

"Within the next few days, we will follow up our commitment to impose a moratorium on logging by issuing an action policy," Irwandi said Saturday.

In line with the logging moratorium policy, Aceh authorities would no longer issue permits for logging activities, he said.

"All logging activities will become illegal , including those conducted by forest concession holders. We have already have the relevant data so we just need to take action in the field," he said.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has expressed its support to Irwandi Yusuf's commitment to declare a moratorium on logging in Indonesia's most western province.

"We have since 2000 been advocating a logging moratorium. And now Governor Irwandi Yusuf has voiced a similar intention. We will support it," Walhi's advocacy division head Dewa Gumay said recently.

Logging activities are being done at the expense of nature and the environment, Dewa said.

Environmental degradation in Aceh had triggered landslides and floods which had claimed many lives, headded.

A logging moratorium would enable existing forests to be preserved and degraded forest areas to be rehabilitated, Dewa said.


edited:16/07/2007
uploaded:17/03/2007