Coordinating Minister Luhut: Indonesia To Show Mangroves To G20 Leaders

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan/DOK VIA ANTARA

PROBOLINGGO - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said the Indonesian government would showcase its mangrove rehabilitation program to G20 leaders.

Coordinating Minister Luhut said the mangrove development and rehabilitation program is one of President Joko Widodo's flagship programs, in which it is targeted that 600,000 hectares of mangrove land can be rehabilitated by 2024.

"One of the important issues at the G20 is climate change. And the Indonesian government will make mangroves a show case for Leaders in the G20", said Coordinating Minister Luhut in his virtual remarks at the launch of the Mangrove Planting Program in Probolinggo Regency, East Java, quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 9th.

He requested that the mangrove rehabilitation program be prepared optimally to demonstrate Indonesia's commitment to protecting the environment and curbing climate change.

"I ask that we prepare our mangrove program as well as possible to show Indonesia's commitment to maintaining the world's climate", said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

Meanwhile, Deputy for Environmental and Forestry Management at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Nani Hendiarti, explained that the mangrove rehabilitation program is a national priority program that has been launched by President Jokowi.

"This program has also been included in the Presidential Decree for the Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) to accelerate the rehabilitation of 600 thousand hectares of mangroves until 2024", she said.

Nani explained that from this target, specifically in 2021, the initial target for mangrove rehabilitation was 100 thousand hectares. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic where there are restrictions, this year the government can only focus on providing seeds.

"Our target is recorded at around 40 thousand hectares this year. But later we will update it until the end of the year because these figures are only recorded from ministries/agencies. For SOEs, the private sector to local governments, it will also be recorded", she said.

With an ambitious scheme and strategic partnerships with various parties, it is hoped that the 2022 target of 150 thousand - 200 thousand hectares of mangrove land rehabilitation will be achieved.

"The World Bank, Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will also provide support starting next year. Next year the target can be at least double or triple, around 150 thousand-200 thousand hectares (mangrove rehabilitation)", she said.