09/11/05 JAKARTA (Asia Pulse) - Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto dismissed protests against the government's plan to plant oil palms in forest areas along the border area of West Kalimantan with the east Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Anton said the government will not change the plan despite protests from a number of non governmental organizations concerned with preservation of the environment. He said the projects will not cause any damage to the environment as the government will choose the locations carefully so that they will not be adversely affected by the opening of the plantations.

Meanwhile, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Indonesia said it is not against the plantations especially as the projects will be in the interest of the local people.

WWF Indonesia Executive Director Mubariq Ahmad warned, however, that investors should not aim only at short term gain from logs they produce from forest clearance.

A number of investors have been reported to abandon their plantation projects after selling logs from the forest they cleared for plantations.

(ANTARA)