Indonesia forests dwindling rapidly by the year<\/p>\n
Edith Hartanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
In the past decade, Indonesia has witnessed the major
\ndestruction of forests in all its provinces, from the western tip
\nof Aceh, to the eastern end of Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
This year is no different. We can vividly see the severe
\ndamage found in designated conservation areas such as national
\nparks and protected forests.<\/p>\n
According to World Bank predictions, Kalimantan's forests are
\nlikely to disappear in nine years, while Sumatra's lowland
\nforests will last only for another four years.<\/p>\n
Natural disasters, such as flooding and landslides in Nias
\nIsland, Bengkulu, many parts of Java along with other parts of
\nSumatra, are glaring examples of how deforestation can inflict
\ntremendous damage in terms of lives lost, and local economies
\nshattered.<\/p>\n
The World Bank also describes Indonesia as losing, on average,
\nsome 1.5 million hectares of forests each year between 1985 and
\n1997. By the beginning of 2000, Indonesia's forests had been
\nreduced to a mere 20 million hectares, down from pre-1985 levels
\nof nearly 43 million hectares.<\/p>\n
There is mounting concern over this increasingly rapid forest
\ndestruction in Indonesia, and with good reason.<\/p>\n
Nearly 60 million people in this country are heavily dependent
\non forest resources, including water.<\/p>\n
Based on this fact, World Bank statistics indicate that
\ndeforestation over the past ten years had reached between 1.7 and
\n2 million hectares annually.<\/p>\n
Unchecked illegal logging and a lack of reforestation programs
\nwere previously blamed for the quickly eroding forests throughout
\nthe archipelago.<\/p>\n
But it seems nothing much is being done to prevent all this,
\nas the massive looting of wood is taking place every day.<\/p>\n
The World Bank's Country Director for Indonesia, Mark Baird,
\ndisclosed during an East-Asia Ministerial Conference on Forest
\nLaw Enforcement and Governance in Bali in September that illegal
\nlogging inflicted a staggering US$600 million per year in losses
\nto the government of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The figure was more than twice what the government claimed to
\nhave spent on its subsidized food program for the poor in 2001.<\/p>\n
Government officials are constantly being blamed for the
\ndecrease, along with farmers who employ slash-and-burn techniques
\nin addition to a large group of illegal loggers.<\/p>\n
Poor enforcement of regulations already filled with loopholes
\nand lack of political will are also among the major obstacles in
\nhandling deforestation.<\/p>\n
Non-governmental organizations point their finger primarily at
\ncompanies engaged in illegal logging, concession holders and
\ntheir collusion with government officials on the problem.<\/p>\n
Longgena Ginting of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment
\n(Walhi) stressed in an East-Asia conference on Forestry in
\nSeptember that traditional communities and indigenous people's
\nrights were among Walhi's top priorities in its efforts to
\nconserve Indonesia's endangered tropical forests.<\/p>\n
According to Walhi, up until now, Indonesia has lost 72
\npercent of its natural forest. Walhi put a higher deforestation
\nrate, which has reached 2.4 million hectares per year.<\/p>\n
Illegal logging activities have robbed 56.6 million cubic
\nmeters of trees from our forests each year, not to mention the
\nten million hectares lost due to the forest fire of 1997\/1998.<\/p>\n
Walhi further estimates that the demand of the timber industry
\nfor forest products, both domestically and for export, stands at
\nabout 100 million cubic meters, of which 21.9 million cubic
\nmeters come from imports.<\/p>\n
The remaining 78.1 million cubic meters must therefore come
\nfrom primary forests while, in fact, the natural forest
\nregeneration process has only a very low level of success.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the European Union (EU) at the Consultative
\nGroup on Indonesia (CGI) have blasted Jakarta's poor capability
\nof enforcing sustainable forest management during its recent
\nmeeting with Indonesian government officials in November, 2001.<\/p>\n
The EU, in a statement read during the meeting, said the
\nIndonesian government had little on-the-ground evidence of
\nsuccess in resolving the country's forestry crisis.<\/p>\n
Despite the criticism, donor countries grouped in the forum
\nagreed to provide US$3.14 billion in loans to help the country's
\ncash-strapped budget.<\/p>\n
Under pressure and fast losing its precious forests, often
\nknown as the "lungs of the earth," due to unchecked logging,
\nIndonesia is tightening the rules on forest exploitation.<\/p>\n
As of 2003, all forest concession holders are required to
\nobtain government-approved sustainable forest management
\ncertification or lose their licenses.<\/p>\n
The government will soon be working on legislation to be
\ncompleted by the end of 2002, Minister of Forestry Mohamad
\nPrakosa said early in December after meeting with President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri.<\/p>\n
Some activities have been carried out by the Ministry of
\nForestry.<\/p>\n
However, high priority action plans such as those related to
\nillegal logging, restructuring of the timber industry, and reform
\nof forest management systems in line with decentralization in
\nregional autonomy era -- which needs inter-departmental
\ncoordination -- have not resulted in significant progress.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Hariadi Kartodihardjo, a deputy for
\nenvironmental degradation control at the Environmental Impact
\nManagement Agency (Bapedal), Indonesia's complex management of
\nforest degradation is caused by structural problems: the gap in
\nallocation of the rights to utilize forest resources, conflicting
\nclaims, and conflicts of interest among bureaucrats, including
\nlaw enforcers.<\/p>\n
All these make people pay less attention to sustaining the
\nforest.<\/p>\n
Private parties are able to afford the extra, high costs
\nentailed because they have the opportunity to gain from illegal
\nlogging, or overexploitation, as compensation and upholding the
\nlaw becomes difficult.<\/p>\n
One major problem in our transition towards decentralization
\nlies in the weak communications between the central government
\nand local administrations, especially in the implementation of
\nforestry policy.<\/p>\n
Army members and bureaucrats have reputations for being
\ninvolved in illegal logging activities, which at times benefit
\nlocal communities seeking to regain some of their resources.<\/p>\n
In line with regional autonomy legislation, the Ministry of
\nForestry under then-minister Nurmahmudi Ismail earlier in
\nJanuary of this year has relinquished some of its authority
\nregarding the authorization of new forest concession permits, to
\nprovincial administrations.<\/p>\n
According to a ministerial decree dated Nov. 6, 2000, the
\nprovincial administration is permitted to issue a forest
\nconcession permit covering an area of up to 100,000 hectares.<\/p>\n
In addition, the regency government is allowed to issue a
\nforest concession permit for an area of up to 50,000 hectares.<\/p>\n
The new freedom of each region to implement its own policy on
\ndevelopment may have lately added to the pace of forest erosion
\nas some areas with limited economic resources have tended to make
\nuse of their forests as the main source of locally-generated
\nincome.<\/p>\n
It is reported that in East Kalimantan, by only paying Rp 200
\nmillion, one can easily secure a concession from the forestry
\nministry for the right to manage a 100-hectare forest plot. And
\nin Jember, East Java, the local administration has issued gold-
\nmining concessions for the Metu Betiri National Park.<\/p>\n
Experience in the last two years has shown that the forest
\nreforms agenda that could be carried out were only those agreed
\nthrough intensive communication among the central and local
\ngovernment as well as other stakeholdres, followed by bureaucracy
\nreform and strengthening.<\/p>\n
Respecting and maintaining the forest rights of indigenous
\npeople is one effective way that can save the forest.<\/p>\n
Unless the government and the timber industry sincerely
\nrespect the rights of traditional communities and indigenous
\npeople, the forest conservation effort is likely to fail.<\/p>\n
These traditional communities and indigenous people possess
\nthe knowledge, which we lack, on how to be friends with the
\nforest and how to utilize it effectively without damaging it.<\/p>\n
Another extreme but tough solution to deforestation is the
\nimplementation of a moratorium, resulting in the halting of all
\nindustrial-scale logging activities for a certain period.<\/p>\n
The moratorium would give the government all the time it needs
\nto rehabilitate the forest, restructure the timber industry and
\ntrade and empower local traditional communities.<\/p>\n
But unless the government acts quickly and strongly against
\nillegal logging and other deforestation activities, along with
\nputting a moratorium into action, Indonesia will lose all of its
\nforests in the next 15 years.<\/p>",
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