Timber estates threaten forests<\/p>\n
By Stepanus Djuweng<\/p>\n
PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan (JP): President Soeharto said
\nrecently that the forest fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra have
\nbeen caused by the land clearing on cash-crop estates, timber
\nestates and transmigration sites.<\/p>\n
This is the first time the Indonesian government recognized
\ndirect environmental pollution is caused by development projects.
\nIt is a shift from the government's customary blame on indigenous
\nfarmers.<\/p>\n
Data from the West Kalimantan forestry office indicates that
\nthere are 1.6 million hectares of land, or about 16 percent of
\nthe whole province, set aside for timber estate development.<\/p>\n
Some 1.2 million hectares of it is for pulp estates, 105,000
\nhectares for non-pulp estates and 65,000 hectares for
\ntransmigration sites. There is no clear definition for each
\ncategory.<\/p>\n
The biggest timber estate areas belong to Finantara Intiga, a
\njoint venture of private company Gudang Garam, state-owned
\nInhutani III and Finnish company Enzo Finland. Finantara Intiga
\nplans to open up 100,000 hectares in the Sintang and Sanggau
\ndistricts with total investments of US$ 150 million.<\/p>\n
The company also plans to invest $1 billion dollars to develop
\na papermill -- helping the government's plan for Indonesia to
\nbecome the world's biggest pulp and paper producer.<\/p>\n
According to a 1992 study by the Indonesian Environmental
\nForum (Walhi), Indonesia is targeting to produce 14.6 million
\ntons of pulp and 36 million tons of paper annually by the year
\n2000.<\/p>\n
The study claims that the environmental implications are
\ntremendous: Indonesia needs to develop 12.65 million hectares of
\ntimber estates or six percent of total Indonesian land area to
\nmeet this target.<\/p>\n
The promotion of Western-style paper consumption, it says, has
\nincreased per capita paper consumption by 11.2 percent from 1981
\nto 1989.<\/p>\n
Table below shows per capita paper consumption in 28 countries
\n(Kerski, 1995).<\/p>\n
Country kgs per capita<\/p>\n
USA 313<\/p>\n
Thailand 30<\/p>\n
Australia 152<\/p>\n
Serbia 10<\/p>\n
Japan 225<\/p>\n
Russia 30<\/p>\n
Italy 132<\/p>\n
Nicaragua 4<\/p>\n
Hong Kong 220<\/p>\n
Brazil 28<\/p>\n
S. Korea 128<\/p>\n
Nigeria 3<\/p>\n
Finland 215<\/p>\n
Bulgaria 20<\/p>\n
Ireland 97<\/p>\n
India 3<\/p>\n
Taiwan 205<\/p>\n
China 17<\/p>\n
Malaysia 62<\/p>\n
Vietnam 1<\/p>\n
Germany 190<\/p>\n
Egypt 11<\/p>\n
Chile 39<\/p>\n
Ghana 1<\/p>\n
UK 170<\/p>\n
Indonesia 10<\/p>\n
Poland 31<\/p>\n
Laos 1<\/p>\n
The global paper consumption is dominated by the North and the
\nfast growing Asian tigers, who comprise only 16 percent of the
\nworld's population while consuming about three-quarters of global
\nproduction. Southern hemisphere countries and Eastern Europe,
\nwith about 84 percent of the world's population, consumed only
\nabout one-third of the global paper production.<\/p>\n
The environmental impacts of the pulp and paper industry will
\nbe getting more crucial in the coming years. Indonesian timber
\ntycoon Mohammad Bob Hasan has started the construction of
\nSoutheast Asia's largest pulp mill.<\/p>\n
With an investment of Rp 2.5 billion (about US$ 2.5 million),
\nit is expected to produce 600,000 tons of pulp annually beginning
\nnext year to meet the demand of the world market. The project
\nenjoys a ten-year tax holiday privilege.<\/p>\n
Development economists believe that such a project is a good
\nanswer to good market opportunities: a market created through
\nexploiting the unlimited wants of man and turning the wants into
\nneeds through advertisement.<\/p>\n
According to West Kalimantan forestry office, there are 22
\ntimber estates companies. Fourteen of them link their projects to
\nthe government transmigration program, six to pulp and two others
\nare categorized as non-timber estates.<\/p>\n
However, up to June 1995, only about 50,000 hectares out of a
\ntotal 1.6 million hectares had been worked on.<\/p>\n
The government cited several reasons for the below-target
\nrealization. First, companies lacked necessary funds. Second, the
\ncompanies failed to pay proper land compensations. Third, there
\nwas an overlapping of land use, and fourth, the land in question
\nwas claimed by local Dayak people as their ancestral land.<\/p>\n
The massive forest resource-based project not only causes
\nenvironmental degradation, but also cuts the economic throat of
\nthe local indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n
These so-called \"development projects\" occupying the Dayak
\nfarm lands have cut down the population's traditional plantations
\nof rubber, coffee and fruit trees. Dr. Mubyarto, assistant
\nchairman of the National Development Planning Board, has warned
\nthat large scale development projects in Kalimantan will
\neliminate many of the economic resources of the Dayak peoples.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the ecological ways of managing and
\nextracting natural resources by the local Dayaks have not been
\nfavored by the government. Officials argue that such indigenous
\npractices are not only economically unproductive, but are also
\ndetrimental to the environment.<\/p>\n
This prejudice stems from a growth priority development
\nparadigm. Apart from degrading the environment by the
\nintroduction of monoculture plantation, the use of fertilizer and
\nother chemicals, these huge projects have also deprived the
\npeople of their ancestral land rights.<\/p>\n
Although the primary goal of timber estate development is to
\nprovide materials for the pulp industry, the process of land
\nclearing favor the plywood industry's interests.<\/p>\n
The logs cut in the process of land clearing from primary
\nforests are advantageous for the wood processing industry. In
\nthis light, the timber estate project is used as a means to
\nbypass the regulation on selective cutting and planting.<\/p>\n
This goes against the government policy that timber estates
\nshould be developed on critical land areas. Critical land is
\ndefined as a piece of land that cannot produce 20 cubic meters of
\nlog per hectare annually. In West Kalimantan, it is impossible to
\nfind 1.5 million hectares of critical land.<\/p>\n
Other incentives for timber estate projects is the free-
\ninterest loans from the government originating from the
\nreforestation funds (funds collected from forest concessionaires
\nfor replanting purposes).<\/p>\n
Ironically, the fund is used to support deforestation through
\ntimber estate projects.<\/p>\n
The writer is director of Institute of Dayakology Research and
\nDevelopment (IDRD) Pontianak, West Kalimantan.<\/p>",
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