REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia commits to allocate 45 percent of Kalimantan for biodiversity conservation and tropical rainforest vegetation preservation. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signs a presidential regulation No. 3 of 2012 that will transform the island as the world's lungs, according to a report in the Cabinet Secretariat' website on Thursday.

Based on the regulation, the government must take a number of steps to declare the island the world`s lungs by among others preserving areas which have biodiversity for endemic plants and animals. Another step is to develop ecosystem corridors among conservation areas and prevent activities that may disturb the reserve areas, the Cabinet Secretariat said in its official website on Thursday.

The remaining 55 percent of Kalimantan island can be used to support the government`s program to achieve energy self-sufficiency and national energy barns for electrical power and develop the island into a mineral, coal, oil and gas mining center, the regulation said. In addition, it can also be used for sustainably developed oil palm and rubber plantations and timber estate; front yard and gateway of the country bordering Malaysia; water-based national urban area development center; tropical forest-based ecotourism and Kalimantan culture tourism; inter-mode transportation networks; and food self-sufficiency and national food barn.

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