Pulp wood estates face hurdles from land clearing<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Land-clearing problems and lengthy negotiations
\nwith indigenous people are the main reasons for the slow
\ndevelopment of pulp wood estates, a forestry executive said
\nyesterday.<\/p>\n
Hendro Prastowo, the executive chairman of the Association of
\nIndonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI), explained that land
\nclearing, which is often related to traditional land rights, can
\ntake months and sometimes years for a forest concessionaire to
\nsettle.<\/p>\n
\"So even if a company has already gained an 'allotment
\napproval' -- government approval to manage a certain area -- the
\ncompany may still need more time to actually start planting,\"
\nHendro said.<\/p>\n
After gaining an allotment approval, he said, the firm must
\nthen seek approval from its \"neighbors\", including other
\nconcessionaires and indigenous villagers, with whom it shares
\nborders and, possibly, overlaps.<\/p>\n
Only then can the government issue a decree allowing the
\ncompany to start operations.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Hendro admitted that several concessionaires
\nfailed to reach their plantation targets not because of land-
\nclearing problems but simply because of negligence.<\/p>\n
According to statistics from the Ministry of Forestry,
\ncompanies given concessions to develop pulp wood estates to
\nsupport their pulp and paper plants have so far planted 519,781
\nhectares or only 13 percent of the 4.05 million hectares of
\ntimber estates targeted by the government.<\/p>\n
The statistics issued by APHI, however, show that as of last
\nDecember, forest concessionaires had planted only 597,418
\nhectares of pulp wood estates or almost 15 percent of the target
\nof 4.05 million hectares.<\/p>\n
Hendro said yesterday that the government had set the planting
\ntarget for 10 years in 1989, when it first started issuing
\nconcessions the task of helping to supply materials to pulp
\nproducers.<\/p>\n
Most of the wood estates already developed were established by
\nthe first 13 companies to get concessions. They were allotted
\n2.63 million hectares of concession areas by the government.<\/p>\n
Now, nine additional firms have submitted proposals for a
\nsimilar purpose and the government has allocated an additional
\n1.42 million hectares for them. So far, however, they have
\nplanted only 26,273 hectares.<\/p>\n
As of last year, Indonesia's pulp industry, according to APHI
\nstatistics, had a total production capacity of 2.54 million tons
\na year.<\/p>\n
Last year Indonesia produced 2.02 million tons of pulp, of
\nwhich 900,000 tons were exported. The country also imported
\n751,400 tons of pulp last year to meet its annual demand of about
\n1.89 million tons.(pwn)<\/p>",
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