In order to realize the Heart of Borneo area in spatial planning as a National Strategic Area (KSN), meeting points, cooperation and support from various parties are needed, especially local governments as managers and responsible for areas that have a strategic role. "In conducting KSN HoB spatial planning, it is necessary to prepare policy directions and strategies in order to realize a balanced spatial arrangement," said the Chairperson of the Central Kalimantan HoB Working Group, Dr. Siun Jarias, SH. MH.

In a speech read by Dr. Siun Jarias, SH. MH while officially opening the HoB National Strategy Area Harmonization Workshop, Wednesday (10/08), at the Aquarius Hotel, Palangka Raya, the Central Kalimantan Provincial Secretary who also serves as Chair of the Central Kalimantan HoB Working Group said that, KSN is an area whose spatial planning is prioritized because it has a very important national influence on state sovereignty, national defense and security as well as economic, social, cultural, and/or environmental, including areas designated as world heritage.

"The HoB Working Group of Central Kalimantan Province strongly supports this workshop to formulate the concept of revitalizing policies and strategies for the development of the HoB area as a National Strategy Area that is able to play a role as a regional growth center," .

Also present at the workshop, Dr. Andi Novianto, Chairman of the National HoB Working Group, said that the HoB National Strategy Area has functions as a protected area and cultivation area. "As a protected area, the area will be directed to be able to develop an environmental service economy such as ecotourism, water services, seed sources, sustainable natural resources and so on." In cultivated areas, the utilization of natural resources needs to be managed in accordance with certification standards that are accepted by the market and refer to the regulations of the Indonesian government so as to reduce the gap in the level of development between regions through integrated economic development.

The workshop, which was jointly organized by the National HoB Working Group, Central Kalimantan HoB Working Group and WWF-Indonesia, was a follow-up activity to the previous workshop that discussed the draft National Strategic Area in the HoB region. "It is expected that after this workshop there can be harmonization between the HoB KSN and the District RTRW," explained Wisnu Rusmantoro, National Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo Program, WWF-Indonesia.

In conducting the spatial planning of KSN HoB, the direction of policies and strategies of the area is needed, in accordance with the objectives of the Heart of Borneo initiative which was previously agreed upon by 3 countries. Some of the policies related to the HoB national strategic area include preserving and improving the function and carrying capacity of the environment to maintain and improve the balance of the ecosystem, preserving biodiversity, maintaining and improving the protection function of the area, preserving the uniqueness of the landscape, preserving national cultural heritage (indigenous tribes of Kalimantan), and developing the nation's socio-culture, as well as preserving and increasing the value of protected areas that have been designated as Natural Reserve areas and developing underdeveloped areas to reduce the level of development gap between regions through economic development of environmental services and best management practices for the utilization of natural resources. The HoB national strategic area is a protected area that has been designated as a Natural Reserve area.

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For more about WWF-Indonesia, please visit the organization's main website at http://www.panda.org/; local sites at http://www.wwf.or.id/ and WWF-Indonesia's membership site at http://www.supporterwwf.org/.WWF-Indonesia and Heart of Borneo: http://www.wwf.or.id/hob.