Jakarta, Feb. 20 -- Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said President Prabowo Subianto has approved a plan to add up to 70,000 forest rangers to strengthen protection of Indonesia's 125 million hectares of national forest areas.

Speaking to the press in Jakarta on Thursday, Antoni said he had met the president twice to discuss increasing the number of forest rangers. During the discussions, the president called for a more ideal personnel-to-area ratio, going beyond the initial proposal to raise the number of rangers to 21,000.

The minister explained that the previously proposed ratio was one ranger for every 2,500 hectares. President Prabowo opted for a more ambitious target of one ranger per 2,000 hectares.

The revised target would re...