Laurentz Park included in Conoco's oil mining area
Friday, March 31 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The provincial office of the ministry of forestry and plantations in Papua (Irian Jaya) has expressed concern over the inclusion of about 150,000 hectares of the Laurentz forest conservation area into the oil mining concession of PT Conoco.
"It is very disappointing that one of the world's most important forest conservation sites has been used for oil exploration," Hermain Prayitno, the head of the office's department for the conservation of natural resources, said in Jayapura on Thursday.
Laurentz Park, the largest forest conservation sites in Asia covering an area of over 2,450,000 hectares is overseen by UNESCO. In late 1999, the Indonesian government included about 150,000 hectares of the park into Conoco's oil concession on the approval of the Indonesian representative office of UNESCO.
He said that UNESCO initially opposed the proposal to use the park for oil exploration. But it later gave its approved after the government agreed to maintain the area granted to Conoco as an integral part of the park even though the site would be used for oil exploration. (*)