70 timber firms lose permits

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)