68 concessionaires denied permits
68 concessionaires denied permits
JAKARTA (JP): The government has decided not to give logging
permits to 68 concessionaires during the 1996/1997 fiscal year,
which starts next month.
"Out of the 188 concessionaires which have submitted their
annual logging plans, 68 are rejected, meaning that they will not
be allowed to harvest their concessions in 1996/1997," Director
of Forest Management at the Ministry of Forestry Titus Sarijanto
told the press yesterday.
He added that 59 other concessionaires were licensed to
harvest 100 percent of their sustainable capacity and 61 only 60
percent of their capacity.
He stated that the government's decision was based on the
working performance of the concessionaires. "The 68
concessionaires which were denied logging permits failed to meet
the rules set by the Ministry of Forestry."
According to Titus, the ministry has set five basic
requirements and six additional requirements that have to be
fulfilled by concessionaires to be allowed to harvest at their
full capacity.
The five basic requirements include, among other things,
helping to develop villages in the environs of their forest
concessions, developing timber estates in cooperation with
transmigrants, paying all official levies and fees and planting
certain crops.
There are 490 concessionaires in the country, of which 251 are
still being assessed, while 51 others have not submitted their
annual logging plans.
He stated that for the current fiscal year ending later this
month, 281 concessionaires were licensed to harvest at 100
percent of their capacity, 144 at 60 percent and 16 were denied
logging licenses.
Titus said that if concessionaires do not submit their annual
logging plans in two consecutive years, their concession licenses
will be revoked.
Production
According to Titus, log production based on the approved
logging plans of the 68 concessionaires is estimated at 5.8
million cubic meters.
But he predicted that during the 1996/1997 fiscal year,
Indonesia's total log production will increase to more than 36
million cubic meters from 31 million cubic meters during the
current fiscal year as 251 logging plans are still being
assessed.
Of the estimated production, 23 million cubic meters will be
produced by concessionaires, 11.4 million cubic meters will be
derived from the conversion of forest land into other purposes,
notably the opening of one million hectares of rice fields in
Central Kalimantan, 1.8 million cubic meters from timber estates
and 0.07 million cubic meters from forest smallhodlings.
He said that this year's total production could be higher as
concessionaires which cannot complete their 1995/1996 logging
plans are allowed to carry over the unrealized logging quota to
the 1996/97 year.
"Therefore, I think the timber industry will not encounter any
shortage of materials in 1996/1997," he noted. (13)