JAKARTA, Jan 5 (Bernama) -- Indonesia plans to beef up reforestation to prevent a repetition of the recent landslides and floods that have claimed hundreds of lives, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said here Friday.
The world and the government have blamed deforestation and forest destruction as the cause of the frequent landslides and floods in the vast archipelago country.
Illegal logging and land clearing for new plantation have destroyed the forest, Indonesian news agency Antara reports.
Kalla said strategy by planting trees with a number doubling those cut for commercial purpose will be implemented soon in lack-forest covered areas.
"We will plant trees as many as possible. This year we plant two million and cut one million trees," he told a press conference.
Kalla said that currently the number of trees cut were more than those planted.
Over 200 people were killed in floods and landslides in the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh of Indonesia's Sumatra island in December last year.
The disaster destroyed hundreds of houses and scores of vital infrastructures. More than 200,000 people were internally displaced.
The tropical country has regularly suffered from the disaster.
Heavy torrential rain has often followed by floods and landslides, as the soil, in the lack forest covered areas, can not hold the water.
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