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| Priest seeks interreligious support for reforestation program |
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Almost half of the former 12,106 hectares of forest land on Nusa Kambangan has been lost to illegal logging, Father Carolus Burrows said during a recent interreligious meeting in Cilacap, a town on the southern Javan coast. The island, which faces the town, houses prison facilities for people convicted of serious crimes such as murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and high-profile corruption.
Father Burrows was one of two speakers at the March 26 meeting that the Catholic-run Social Foundation for Welfare Promotion organized jointly with the Interreligious Communication Forum (FKUB, Indonesian acronym) of Cilacap district. Eight Buddhist, Confucian and Muslim leaders, as well as a dozen Muslim youths, attended the meeting.
Father Burrows, director of the foundation, said 44 farmers from a nearby area in Java are participating in a reforestation project he started five months ago. The farmers have planted 150,000 seedlings -- 100,000 trees for commercial timber and 50,000 fruit trees -- on a 44-hectare site on Nusa Kambangan.
The project, which will continue for another three months, provides each farmer 1 million rupiah (US$91) to obtain the seedlings they plant on the island and another 2 million rupiah to tend the young trees. Trocaire, the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is funding the initiative.
According to Father Burrows, the project takes the needs of forest animals into account: "Monkeys, wild boars and other animals need food. That is why we also planted fruit trees."
The priest hopes 500,000 trees will eventually be planted, with support from the district FKUB.
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