Rawa Singkil Wildlife Sanctuary Forest In Aceh Experiences Deforestation Of 1,324 Hectares

Illustration of deforestation (ANTARA)

BANDA ACEH - Manager of GIS Forests Foundation and the Aceh Environment (HAkA) Lukmanul Hakim stated that the deforestation rate in the Rawa Singkil Aceh Wildlife Sanctuary (SM) reached 1,324 hectares from 2019 to 2023.

"Compared to that, the number is more than 140 times the area of the Blang Padang Field in Banda Aceh," said Lukmanul, quoted by ANTARA, Sunday, July 30.

He said that based on satellite imagery monitoring, the number of forest loss in SM Rawa Singkil continues to increase every year. Most recently from January-June 2023 the number has reached 372 hectares, an increase of about 57 percent compared to the previous period.

"In 2019, deforestation in SM Rawa Singkil covering an area of 28 hectares, 2020 covering an area of 43 hectares, 2021 covering an area of 165 hectares, will increase in 2022 to an area of 716 hectares," he said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), Rahmat, said that his party had not been silent about the deforestation that occurred at SM Rawa Singkil.

"We have arrested several additional perpetrators so that law enforcement can be given for their actions. From 2015-2022 we have given law enforcement five times, last October last year, we arrested four people in Cot Bayu Village, Trumon, who have been sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison and a fine of Rp. 250 million," he said.

Rahmat said that the BKSDA was also constrained by the shortage of personnel in charge of supervising and patrolling SM Rawa Singkil, which covers an area of 82,188 hectares, and administratively spread over three areas, namely South Aceh Regency, Aceh Singkil Regency, and Subulussalam City.

"Our personnel from the BKSDA who anticipate the problems in Rawa Singkil are only 14 people, namely Trumon, South Aceh 3 personnel, Rundeng in Subulussalam there are 5 personnel, and Aceh Singkil has 6 personnel," he said.

In addition, other challenges are boundary boundaries that are still unfinished in South Aceh along 73 km and Subulussalam 30 km. Then, there was a rejection from the community against the boundary in the SM Rawa Singkil area.

According to him, the local community asked for the boundary of SM Rawa Singkil 5 km from the asphalt road.

"There is no limit. This is a problem, then the community also wants to open a land 5 kilometers from the edge of the area, if 5 kilometers, the area will run out," he said.

On this occasion, Investigators from the Law Enforcement Center (Gakkum) of the Sumatran Region of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Herwin Hermawan, said that to resolve the problem at SM Rawa Singkil not only by providing law enforcement, but also looking for the root of the problem so that it can be handled according to the problems that occur.

Solving problems, he continued, does not mean that you only take law enforcement actions, but there are also other steps that need to be taken, one of which is providing education.

"We want to solve the problem by trying to build education and understanding with these areas," said Herwin.