REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya said the government will aggravate penalties for sellers of endangered species. According to her, the current penalties were too weak and without deterrent effect.

"The law process in animal's handling hasn't done yet because the punishment was too weak," Siti said on Tuesday (2/2) at the Presidential Palace.

She explained from the dozens of cases that processed over the past 10 years, the suspects were sentenced only 2 until 6 months in prison. Meanwhile, the fine in the law was only at maximum of 100 million.

Currently, the government is trying to do the revision to Law No. 5/1990 on Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems. According to Siti, the proposed revision of Law has been entered into the national legislation program (Prolegnas).

Siti affirmed the government continues to improve the monitoring of the trade of endangered species. Recently, she also received a report that said there was the selling of rare turtles happened frequently.

"That turtle price is about Rp 1 million to Rp 1,5 million," she added.

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