14/2/06 JAKARTA (Asia Pulse) - The Indonesian forestry ministry indicated it will not sanction plans to convert forest lands in frontier areas in Kalimantan into oil palm plantations.

However the Agriculture Ministry has previously said it wants to build two million hectares of oil palm plantations in West and East Kalimantan along the border area with Malaysia.

This plan, however, has drawn criticism especially from environmentalists who claim it will cause extensive damage to forests.

Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban suggested new oil palm plantations could be built in unused areas which have already been approved by the government.

A senior official of the ministry Yetti Rusli said that since 1990, licenses have been granted to build plantations on 4 million hectares of forest lands in Kalimantan, with only 2 million hectares so being used. Kaban has declared he may revoke the licenses for the unused land.

He noted that there have been cases of licensees abandoning projects after cutting down all the forest trees, as from the beginning they were only ever interested in logging.

(ANTARA)