Six regions to develop bioenergy

The government has identified six provinces in the country to immediately develop bioenergy or biomass power plants, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said stated.

Sudirman said in a statement last week that a recent MoU with the Central Kalimantan government and two local regents for cooperation in bioenergy development in the region will be followed with other regions.

?Our cooperation to develop bioenergy potential in Central Kalimantan is the first step. This cooperation will be continued with the next agreements with several (five) other regions which have been readied to develop bioenergy,? he said.

The five other regions are East Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, Papua, South Sulawesi and West Papua.

Sudirman said that supporting programs for bioenergy would be carried out in each region after the signing of an agreement between the government and local administrations in those areas.

The minister said among activities the government would undertake were conducting feasibility studies on bioenergy project locations, developing green areas of land belonging to local administrations and facilitating investments for the implementation of the program.

He added that private businesses and international organizations will also be involved in the development of bioenergy potential in the regions.

He further said other steps Indonesia would take included replanting and conserving plants on degraded land, critical land and ex-mining land. The government has estimated that critical land in Indonesia ranges between 49?70 million hectares. (*)