Indonesian rainforests face extinction<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Illegal logging that has swept through forest areas and national
\nparks across the archipelago has reached an alarming level,
\nhaving a serious impact on locals and the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Thousands of farmers in border areas between Aceh and North
\nSumatra and between South Tapanuli and Riau are now afraid to
\nfarm their land after herds of wild elephants ran amok,
\nransacking hundreds of hectares of farmland following the
\ndestruction of big trees in their own habitat.<\/p>\n
Residents of Nias Island, North Sumatra and Belu, East Nusa
\nTenggara, are still traumatized from the tragedy that claimed
\nhundreds of lives early this year when flash flooding swept
\nthrough low lands after forests in the regions' upper areas were
\nlooted by illegal loggers for years.<\/p>\n
Dozens of motorized carts have transported almost every day
\nhundreds of cubic meters of timber from the Leuser National Park
\nin South Aceh to small North Sumatra towns bordering the restive
\nprovince.<\/p>\n
According to locals living near the park, the forest looting
\nhas lasted for several years, aided and abetted by the duplicity
\nof local security authorities.<\/p>\n
\"Many people, especially Acehnese refugees, have taken jobs
\ncutting down big trees in the park and supplying them to sawmills
\noperating in the borderlines,\" Abdurrahman, a local resident,
\nsaid recently.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman, also a civil servant said the Leuser Management,
\nwho is responsible for supervising the park's conservation
\nprogram could do nothing to curb the illegal logging because it
\nwas backed up by hoodlums and the authorities.<\/p>\n
The illegal logging has not only taken place in production
\nforests but also in government designated protected forests,
\nnational parks and natural conservation areas which are found in
\nalmost all provinces.<\/p>\n
Forests in Aceh have decreased drastically to 5.5 million
\nhectares in 1997 from nine million in 1991 while those in North
\nSumatra have diminished to four million hectares in 2000 from 5.3
\nmillion in 1991.<\/p>\n
The supply of electricity in Aceh, North Sumatra, South
\nSumatra and Lampung has been threatened following the breakdown
\nof a number of hydropower plants in the provinces.<\/p>\n
So far, rolling blackouts have been imposed in regions in
\nLampung and South Sumatra because of the affected hydropower
\nplants in Way Kambas since March of this year. Similar events
\nhave also transpired in Sulawesi and state-owned PLN has turned
\nto geothermal and coal energy to supply electricity to its
\nconsumers.<\/p>\n
Despite these alarming conditions, no concrete steps have been
\ntaken by the government to curtail the illegal logging.<\/p>\n
The Jambi Provincial Police has seized this month more than
\n4,000 cubic meters of log which is believed to have been looted
\nfrom the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS), however so far
\nnobody has been brought to court following the investigation of a
\nnumber of sawmills and transportation firms where the logs were
\nseized.<\/p>\n
Several regents in West Sumatra have given up trying to deal
\nwith the illegal logging in the province because it is supported
\nby security personnel and councillors.<\/p>\n
Sinjunjung Regent Darius Apan said each time the local
\nauthorities launched anti-illegal logging operations, it was
\nleaked to forest looters and many people allegedly paid by timber
\nbusinessmen staged demonstrations in the legislative council
\nbuilding to protest the operation.<\/p>\n
He cited a total of 238 hectares of rainforest in the regency
\nthat had been looted since Jan. 2002 and are now left barren.<\/p>\n
According to data obtained from the local office of the
\nNational Resources Conservation Agency, a total of more than
\n7,500 of 379,000 hectares of the TNKS in the province were
\ndeforested over the last two years.<\/p>\n
Areas of Batam, an industrial area bordering Malaysia and
\nSingapore, are facing a clean water crisis as a result of the
\nintensive destruction of primary rainforest for the development
\nof illegal houses, an expensive commodity on the island.<\/p>\n
\"Batam will be facing a complete clean water crisis in 2005
\ndue to the rapid economic development and population growth,\"
\nAntara Zulfakar, a senior staff of the local environmental
\nmanagement agency (Bapedalda) said recently.<\/p>\n
He said 40 years will be needed to regreen 4,400 hectares of
\nforest already laid barren for illegal housing development over
\nthe last several years.<\/p>\n
This is a stopgap measure that will only relieve some of the
\nflooding and soil erosion. It will not replace the old--growth
\nforest ecosystem.<\/p>",
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