Minister vows to curb illegal logging<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban said on Friday he planned
\nto meet with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and
\nSecurity Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto to help resolve the rampant
\nillegal logging in Papua, which a recent report says is backed by
\nmembers of the military.<\/p>\n
"It is organized crime and it involves many officials," he
\nsaid on Friday.<\/p>\n
He said it would not be easy to arrest and prosecute military
\nor government officials involved in the crime because "they are
\nvery tricky."<\/p>\n
Kaban was responding to a report by the London-based
\nEnvironmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian
\nenvironmental group Telapak, which revealed a massive smuggling
\noperation of illegal logs from Papua to China by an international
\nsyndicate.<\/p>\n
The report implicates top military and government officials,
\nIndonesian law enforcers and crooked entrepreneurs in Malaysia,
\nHong Kong and China in the crime.<\/p>\n
The report says about 300,000 cubic meters of merbau (Intsia)
\nlogs from Indonesia, most of them from Papua, are being smuggled
\nto China each month. Merbau is one of the most valuable timber
\nspecies in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
Separately, State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar
\nsaid that his office would soon conduct an environmental
\nassessment of Papua's forests to examine the destruction caused
\nby the illegal logging there.<\/p>\n
"Papuan forests are among the few forests left in the country.
\nWe must preserve them, therefore, we'll make an environmental
\nassessment soon," he said.<\/p>\n
Kaban said that his ministry would conduct a massive offensive
\non illegal logging in Papua but said that to be effective it must
\nbe supported by other ministries and government institutions.<\/p>\n
"We have conducted crackdowns (before) in Kalimantan, but they
\nhave only worked for a while," he said.<\/p>\n
Kalimantan used to be the center of illegal logging operations
\nin the country, but as its forests had been greatly diminished
\nloggers were now focussing on Papua, activists said.<\/p>",
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