Pangandaran (January 16, 2020) - Pangandaran Regency Disaster Preparedness Cadet (Tagana) participated in tree planting activities on a one-time illegal logging location at Kitambaga Block Selasari Village, Langkaplancar District.

The Regent, as well as the Counsellor of Pangandaran Regency Tagana, Jeje Wiradinata directly led the movement of planting thousands of trees in the forest encroachment area.

"Today we planted more than a thousand trees involving all elements of the regional government, the Ciamis Military District Command, the Ciamis District Police Chief, and the community to reforest the land encroached a few months ago," said Jeje Wiradinata.

Tree planting, he continued, became one of the patterns in handling critical land in Pangandaran Regency. According to Jeje, occurring disasters such as floods, landslides and other natural disasters were mostly caused by human factors.

"Those who are short-minded, only thinking of immediate benefits when logging in protected forests," he said.

Jeje said that Pangandaran Regency had formed Jaga Leuweung team consisted of 150 local villagers. The goal was to protect the forest.

“They will be trained to understand forestry. We will equip them with operational vehicles,” he said.

Jeje hoped that the tree-planting movement would become a momentum in protecting the forest. 

“To those who did illegal logging, let’s talk in person or in a group. We need to talk about it because illegal logging leads to fatal consequences,” he said.

According to Jeje, the area damaged by illegal logging is a buffer forest zone, a water source for agricultural use. It was also the water source for a number of tourist attractions such as Green Canyon, Citumang, Batulumpang, and so on. 

This activity involved the Head of Ciamis Regional Police, the Commander of the Ciamis Military District Command, Chairperson of the Pangandaran Regional Legislative Assembly, Ciamis State-owned Forestry Company Officers, heads of Regional Government Work along with their staff, tourism stakeholders, and the local community. 

“We strongly support the Pangandaran Regent’s determination to reforest the critical lands. It fits our ‘Tagana Protecting Nature’ program,” said Chairman of the Pangandaran Tagana Communication Forum, Nana Suryana.

Pangandaran Regency Tagana continuously enforced the ‘Tagana Protecting Nature’ program in mitigating disasters. “We have mapped several disaster-prone locations, including those illegal logging locations,” he said.

In addition to planting trees, Tagana had routinely normalized several prone-disaster rivers. “We consistently preserve the nature and persuade the community to minimalize the disaster potentials,” he concluded.