Aceh's Leuser project halted, 200 workers dismissed

Aceh's Leuser project halted, 200 workers dismissed

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The European Union-sponsored Leuser Management Unit (UML), which
handled a conservation project in the Leuser National Park in
southeast Aceh, has been forced to fire its remaining 200 staff
members due to its patron's decision to stop financial assistance
at the end of this month for unspecified reasons.

Hardi Baktiantono, spokesman for UML, told The Jakarta Post
here on Saturday that the dismissal was the second and last by
the UML after the European Union decided to stop financial aid to
the project, the contract of which does not expire until May
2002.

"UML will not provide severance pay for the 200 staff members
because their employment was based on a labor contract. The
contract between the EU and the Indonesian government is valid
until May 2002 but the EU decided unilaterally to halt aid to the
project ahead of schedule for efficiency reasons," he said.

He added that UML laid off 160 workers last year.

Hardi denied that the severing of EU assistance had anything
to do with the project's failure to halt serious deterioration of
the environment and deforestation in the park.

"The UML's dissolution and staff dismissal have nothing to do
with forest deterioration in the national park," he said,
pointing out that dismissals had been occurring since early 2000
when UML laid off a total of 160 people in phases.

The financing of the conservation project worth euro
50,500,000 was based on a contract between the EU and the
government signed in 1995 that stipulated that the EU would grant
euro 32,500,000 to the project and the government euro 18
million.

Hardi said that so far UML had spent Rp 91.5 billion, 87
percent of which was from the EU and the remaining 13 percent
from the government.

"A bigger part of the funds were used to pay salaries," he
said.

He declined to explain in detail the progress made by UML over
the last six years.

Some 160,000 hectares of around 800,000 hectares of forest in
the national park have been severely damaged due to rampant
looting and illegal logging. Villagers and refugees have looted
the forest and sold the logs to sawmills and timber companies in
areas in North Sumatra near the national park.

"We have faced difficulty in curbing rampant forest looting
because it has been supported by law enforcers and local
officials," Hardi said, adding that UML's assets would be handed
over to the local forestry ministry office.

He said that UML had reported 124 illegal logging cases to
local authorities, but only four cases had gone to court.

Adil Sirait, a member of the North Sumatra provincial
legislature's Commission II on forestry and environment, blamed
UML for EU cutting off assistance.

"EU has halted its financial assistance because it considers
UML ineffective in conserving the national park. This case is a
good lesson not only for UML, but also for the government.
Indonesia should be more concerned than the EU about serious
deforestation in the country," he said, adding that the EU was
committed to forest conservation because the Indonesian tropical
forest was in reality the world's lungs.