70 timber firms lose permits

JAKARTA (JP): At least 70 timber companies have lost their forest concession permits as of October this year for failing to abide by the government's forestry regulations, says a senior official.

The secretary general of the Ministry of Forestry, Oetomo, said the revoked concession permits covered over 4.5 million hectares of forest.

He added that the ministry had also refused to extend the concession permits of at least 136 other companies, covering 10.2 million hectares of forest.

He said that many timber companies still violated forestry regulations despite stricter governmental supervision.

"As of October of the 1997/1998 fiscal year (beginning in April), at least 26 concessionaires were found to be violating regulations. They were fined Rp 18.62 billion," he told a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives.

Oetomo said that in the last fiscal year, 48 concessionaires were found guilty of committing violations and were fined Rp 20.94 billion.

The violations committed by those concessionaires included cutting trees outside their own designated area, recutting, building new roads without permits and cutting mother trees.

He said that in the April to October period of the current fiscal year, the forestry ministry approved 414 annual working plans proposed by existing timber companies. Another 24 working plans were rejected.

All of the country's timber companies must submit their working plans at the end of the year to the ministry before resuming operations.

In the 1996/97 fiscal year, the ministry only approved 400 annual working plans of the total 440 proposed by forest concession holders or timber companies.

He said that the ministry had used around Rp 5.9 billion of reforestation fund in its effort to extinguish forest fires this year.

"Previously, the ministry had an annual budget of around Rp 1 billion for forest fires," he said.

He said that the forest and land fires had covered over 165,352 hectares as of October.

The ministry had created 862 groups of firefighters comprising over 13,000 personnel to extinguish the fires.

"But we found some difficulties due to the scarcity of personnel and equipment and the lack of water in this current prolonged dry season, especially to extinguish fires in peat areas," he said. (08)