TREE PLANTING: Management of PT KTH posing together with OF-UK and the representatives of Yayorin prior to the planting in wildlife corridor area of PT Korintiga Hutani, Monday (5/4) (SYAMSUDIN/RADAR PANGKALAN BUN)
PT KTH Collaborates with OF-UK and Yayorin
PANGKALAN BUN – As many as 1,600 fruit trees were planted in the wildlife corridor area, to be precise in the Bukit Panjang and Bukit Harum areas of PT Korintiga Hutani (KTH), Monday (5/4). This tree planting is in commemoration of Earth Day as well as a follow-up to the MoU between PT KTH with the Orangutan Fundation UK and the Indonesian Orangutan Foundation (Yayorin) in preserving wildlife forests, especially orangutans in KTH.
General Manager of PT KTH, Rais Sugito emphasized that this activity is a form of the company’s commitment in maintaining nature preservation. “With the tree planting in the wildlife corridor area, we hope we can increase the size of the conservation area and turn it into a comfortable place for protected animals,” Rais explained.
The total planted area for wildlife corridor is around four hectares. The hope is to increase the movement area for orangutans living in Bukit Panjang and Bukit Harum.
Hendra Gunawan from OF-UK said that the collaboration in creating this wildlife corridor has become a joint commitment with PT KTH for orangutan conservation. Based on a survey that was previously conducted, the location of orangutan population is divided on several hills. So with this corridor, the orangutans can roam more freely from one hill to another. Based on the survey and monitoring, there are about 67 individual orangutans in the area.
“We truly appreciate the concern from PT KTH and our hope that in the future, orangutans can continue to flourish well while the company can also continue its production smoothly, so both of which are running,” said Hendra during the planting activitiy.
On this occasion, he conveyed that in case there are orangutans appear, he hopes they will not be disturbed and it would be better to contact BKSDA or OF-UK for further handling. However, he admitted that in the area of PT KTH, such conflict has never occurred, let alone orangutans destroying crops.
Meanwhile, Gusti Wicaksono from Yayorin stated that of the 1,600 trees planted, 80 percent are local fruit trees which are useful for the future availability of orangutan food. The types of fruit trees planted are durian, star fruit, marinjahan, mentawa, and so forth.
Apart from the tree planting, his team is also in collaboration with PT KTH to provide education to surrounding schools. The goal is to provide an understanding of the existence of orangutans.
The tree planting was also attended by the President Director of PT KTH, Abe Hironobu and dozens of employees. The symbolic planting was followed by planting right on the location. (sam/sla)
Source : radarsampit.com