Updated on Monday, July 30, 2007, 00:00 IST

Medan, July 30: Eyeing the industrial forest estates in Indonesia, the government is encouraging reforestation of two million hectares of forest area each year.

"If we wish to conserve the forests, it would be necessary to launch a reforestation drive considering that forests are like the lungs of the earth," Forestry Minister M S Kaban said.

Kaban asked all relevant parties to give more support to the Indonesian initiative of forest rehabilitation and conservation.

Another step taken by Indonesia is a regulation, which curtails tree felling from 30 to 9.1 million cubic meters each year. A policy on forest rehabilitation and conservation is a priority program of the Forestry Ministry in addition to combating illegal logging still rampant in Indonesia, he said.

The Forestry Minister visited North Sumatra in the framework of planting 5000 mangrove seedlings symbolically on Cermin Coast, Sedang Bedegei, North Sumatra.

Bureau Report