Jakarta – Indonesia and Timor Leste have committed to cooperate on forestry, agriculture, maritime and fisheries issues.
Timor Leste Coordinating Economic cum Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Estanislau Aleixo da Silva met with Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to talk about the two nations' future cooperation, especially in forestry.
Following the signing of the memorandum on coordination, the two ministries will work together in setting up a framework to develop the cross country watershed area. There are 10 watershed areas, amounting to 466,582 hectares, according to the ministry.
The 10 watershed areas are Daikain Oepotis, Tafara, Oebase, Besi, Babulu, Meto, Ekat, Talau, Mena and Kobalima.
"We should conserve the watershed areas together. We're going to identify the existing issues to work on the framework," Siti said on Monday at the ministry's office.
The ministry's watershed planning and evaluation director Djati Wicaksono Hadi added that 40 percent of the areas, especially around the headwaters, currently needed rehabilitation.
"Timor Island [where Timor Leste and Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara are located] has different geophysical characteristics. The land is sandy so water absorption is poor and drought is prevalent in the area," Djati told The Jakarta Post on.
The government said that it would seek mechanisms to solve the problem. "We can't change the landscape but we can manage it with terracing so we can preserve water until the following summer and implement SWAT [soil and water assessment tools] to reveal which plants suit the area and how to plant them," Djati said.
Ministry spokesperson Eka W. Soegiri said the joint cooperation was needed because the watershed's rivers flowed across the countries' borders. "A watershed area is like a person's body. It needs maintenance of both the headwaters and the downstream areas. If we only take care of one part, it will affect other parts," Eka said.
Eka added that the framework would not only touch on the rehabilitation but would also involve various sectors and improve livelihoods on the island. "The goal is to develop the island, be it in the Timor Leste part or Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara part. We'll develop fisheries, forestry, infrastructure, social aspects and much more because the people living in the watershed work in various sectors," he said.
Da Silva's trip to Indonesia was a return visit following Siti's visit to his country in June, when she handed over 50,000 tree seeds as a part of support for Timor Leste's forestry sector.
"We are here also in a way to repay the visit that Minister Siti made earlier. We had a very fruitful meeting, discussing how we could strengthen our cooperation and that's why we are here visiting the ministry, apart from visiting other places like CIFOR [the Center for International Forestry Research] and Bogor Botanical Gardens," he said.
Da Silva later went to CIFOR, the botanical Gardens and Taman Safari Zoo in Bogor, West Java, on Monday and Tuesday.
"The minister [Da Silva] is visiting Indonesia to see our research into forestry, agriculture, maritime and fisheries issues. Timor Leste has asked for help from us specifically for marine resource evaluation and planning and building a botanical garden and zoo," Siti added. (rbk)
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/08/28/ri-timor-leste-manage-rivers.html