Banjarbaru, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - More than 168 thousand hectares of critical land in South Kalimantan province has been revitalized by the local government through the ‘green revolution movement’ launched in 2018. The achievement can be attributed to the hard work of all parties who supported the green revolution movement, South Kalimantan provincial secretary Roy Rizali Anwar said here on Thursday. Critical land refers to an area or land that has been degraded, thus, it cannot carry out its original function.
The green revolution movement, which was promoted by the Governor of South Kalimantan, Sahbirin Noor, by managing and reforesting critical lands, proved innovative in solving the environmental issue, the provincial secretary said.
Not only provincial, district, and city government employees, but also all employees of the ministry’s representative offices and technical implementing units in the province, as well as all South Kalimantan people were mobilized to join the movement, he added "Everyone can contribute -- even if they only plant one tree seedling in their own garden," he remarked.
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He also emphasized that all parties in the province have never stopped working to mitigate climate change and environmental damage in the region as the province is also a part of Kalimantan Island, which has the largest forested area in Indonesia and serves as the “lungs of the world.”
The establishment of an Indonesian tropical rainforest park in the South Kalimantan provincial government’s office complex in Banjarbaru city was also lauded by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) when he visited the province a while ago.
In fact, the President had asked that similar tropical rainforest parks be built in Indonesia’s new capital city (IKN), Nusantara, in East Kalimantan province "It is an honor for South Kalimantan (province) to become a model (for the construction of the park). The President also expects that up to 70 percent of the IKN area will be covered with a tropical rainforest park," Anwar informed.
According to the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s data, the total forested area in South Kalimantan province spans about 1,664 thousand hectares. At least 950,800 hectares of the land has been designated as a protected forest and production forest area.