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)