Illegal logging: Where do we go from here?
\nIllegal logging sees no slowing down<\/p>\n
Stevie Emilia
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
When the world's biggest timber smuggling operation from Papua to
\nChina was exposed this year, it marked a turning point in the
\nfight against illegal logging in the country.<\/p>\n
Released in February by the London-based Environmental
\nInvestigative Agency (EIA) and its local partner Telapak, the
\nreport -- which openly accusing high-ranking Indonesian Military
\n(TNI) officers of being in cahoots with other government
\nofficials and law enforcers in running the racket -- worked like
\nmagic.<\/p>\n
Wasting no time, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rounded up
\nhis subordinates and ordered a huge crackdown led by the National
\nPolice and supported by the Indonesian Military against the
\nsmuggling operation -- estimated to be worth around one billion
\ndollars a year in merbau logs from Papua to China amid a log
\nexport ban in place since 2001.<\/p>\n
Just within three months after the report was launched,
\nTelapak recorded that the Rp 12 billion (US$1.2 million)
\ncrackdown has netted 173 suspects and seized over 385,000 cubic
\nmeters of logs.<\/p>\n
The police also reported in May that they had submitted case
\nfiles on at least 25 suspects, including three middle-ranking
\nPapua police officers, to prosecutors, while case files on the
\nremaining 151 suspects were still being completed.<\/p>\n
The crackdown has also affected the market for merbau timber,
\na hardwood used mainly for flooring, with shortages and price
\nrises reported in both Indonesia and China.<\/p>\n
But the crackdown failed to impress long enough, nor failed to
\nstop the country's rapid deforestation rate, claimed to be the
\nworld's worst with an area the size of Switzerland being lost
\nevery year.<\/p>\n
Telapak's forest campaigner, Muhammad Yayat Afianto, said the
\ncrackdown had an immediate affect on reducing illegal logging but
\nlamented the significant fact that the major criminal networks
\nwere not broken although the government has been informed of the
\nofficials involved in the racket.<\/p>\n
Come December, the magic has completely worn off.<\/p>\n
Around the country, illegal logging continues as before --
\neven reaching deep into protected forested areas like national
\nparks.<\/p>\n
From 144 million hectares of tropical forests that the country
\nhad in 1991, it has shrunk to 110 million hectares in 2003 as
\ndeforestation caused by illegal logging, forest fires, forest
\nconversion is unstoppable at a rate which is estimated at more
\nthan 2.8 million hectares per year.<\/p>\n
Weak law enforcement, political will and conflicting policies
\n-- which look good on paper, but because capacity and resources
\nare lacking, cannot be enforced -- have meant that deforestation
\nis still on the rise in many parts of the country, like
\nKalimantan, Sumatra and Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
In Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, millions of hectares
\nof forest are currently at risk if the government proceeds with a
\nplan to open the world's largest palm oil plantation on the
\nisland.<\/p>\n
The plan -- which is expected to cover an area of 1.8 million
\nhectares along the 850 kilometer Indonesia-Malaysia border in the
\nnorthern areas of West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan provinces
\n-- is feared might harm not only the forest but also the rich
\nforest biodiversity in Kalimantan, which has a vast area of
\ntropical rain forest and is home to several near-extinct species,
\nlike orangutans.<\/p>\n
All these years, according to the World Wife Fund for Nature,
\nKalimantan, which has 27 million hectares of forests, has
\nsuffered from rapid deforestation at the rate of 1.2 million
\nhectares per year. The World Bank even predicts that by 2010, all
\nof Kalimantan's lowland forests will disappear if nothing is done
\nto curb deforestation.<\/p>\n
Timber smuggling operations are also hard to miss in Lampung
\nwhere illegal logs are being shipped out of the Way Kambas and
\nBukit Barisan Selatan national parks to illegal sawmills in broad
\ndaylight.<\/p>\n
The illegally processed logs are then openly transported to
\nports -- equipped with all the legitimate documents like the
\nProcessed Timber (SAKO), Log Transportation (SAKB) and Forest
\nProducts Validation (SKSHH) certificates -- to reach Java and
\nother islands, causing the country an estimated Rp 15 trillion in
\nlosses per year.<\/p>\n
However, during raids, the bosses escape arrest, leaving their
\nsmalltime workers in the hands of law enforcers.<\/p>\n
Bukit Barisan Selatan and West Lampung Police recorded only 17
\ncases of illegal logging and apprehended 24 suspects from January
\nto November this year.<\/p>\n
Out of the 17 cases, only suspects in three cases were given
\nup to four months jail and fined up to Rp 200,000 (US$20) per
\nperson, while six other cases are still under trial and the
\nremaining eight cases are still under investigation.<\/p>\n
In line with Article 50 F and H of Law No. 41\/1999 on
\nforestry, smugglers could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Head of Lampung Forestry Office, Arinal Djunaidi, claimed
\nthere were extensive operations being conducted to curb illegal
\nlogging, which caused the province to lose 12,500 hectares of
\nforested area per year, but they mostly exposed small cases since
\nthe province only relies on 200 forest rangers.<\/p>\n
The absence of proper employment was also blamed for the
\nspread of illegal logging in Lampung, with residents willing to
\nspend up to five months in jail as long as they can get Rp 50,000
\neach for carrying illegal logs, according to Joko Santoso of the
\nLampung-based Illegal Logging Response Center.<\/p>\n
In Papua, however, the Bogor-based Telapak did see some
\nsignificant progress after the crackdown with almost no more
\nillegal shipments reported from April to November this year.<\/p>\n
\"But we have heard no progress on the trial, although the
\nattorney general said that 87 percent of the cases were already
\nin their hands,\" Yayat said, adding that if the timber mafia are
\nremoved it will give a chance to the Papuans to benefit from
\ntheir own natural resources.<\/p>\n
With the magic gone -- no real law enforcement by handing down
\nthe maximum sentence for big timber bosses involved in illegal
\nlogging, no support for the forestry community, more natural
\nforest conversion and no coordination among institutions like law
\nenforcers and officials -- the future of the country's forests is
\nbleak.<\/p>\n
\"I think the government still has to work hard to reduce
\nillegal logging next year. If we fail to stop it, Indonesia will
\nhave no more natural forest by 2010,\" Yayat said.<\/p>\n
-- With additional reporting by Oyos H.N. Saroso in Lampung
\nand Nethy Dharma Somba in Papua.<\/p>",
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