Minister : Forest Preservation Crucial to Address Climate Change

Jakarta, Indonesia`s 120-million-hectare forests, the world`s third widest expanse of tropical greenery after those of Brazil and Zaire, must be preserved to help deal with climate change, a minister said.

"The world is focusing its attention on the preservation of tropical forests including those found in Indonesia," Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said here Thursday.

Climate change has the potential to cause food scarcities in various parts of the world, including in Indonesia, the minister said when officially opening a National Conference on Management Research at the PPM Management Institute.

"In 2011 or 2012, because of climate change, there might be food scarcities," he said.
The forestry ministry had stopped issuing licenses for new primary forest and peat forest concessions.

Deforestation was continuing in Indonesia due to illegal logging , over exploitation, industrial mismanagement, and forest area conversion.

"These facts had intensified deforestation, which is also a factor in the increase in greenhouse gas emission," Minister Zulkifli Hasan said.

The minister explained that climate change was not a made-up thing, but it is real and happening in various countries.

Due to the climate change impacts, Russia has been hit by extreme heat, while Pakistan has experienced extreme precipitation, according to him.