'Central govt not serious about forestry management'

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java

West Java administration officials and politicians lambasted the central government's dualistic policy on forest management, saying the central government was not serious in implementing regional autonomy.

The chief of the local forestry office, Endang Sudradjat, said the provincial administration was confused by the presence of overlapping authorities in the handling of forestry affairs in the province since the central government still gave state-owned PT Perhutani the authority to manage forests in the province while under Law No. 25/1999 on fiscal balance, the provincial administration is in charge of managing the forests.

"The landslides and floods that hit several areas in the province over the last two weeks have a lot to do with the continued deforestation and rampant logging carried by PT Perhutani which should no longer have the authority to slash trees in forest areas in the province," he said in a hearing with the provincial legislature Commission B on plantations and forestry here on Thursday.

He claimed that the forestry ministry still gave Perhutani a log target for the province and the company had ignored the provincial administration's decision on a three-year logging moratorium.

Endang warned that more and more landslides would certainly hit settlement areas in the province unless the central government lifted Perhutani's authority over forest management.

He said he and governor R. Nuriana had met with Minister for State-owned Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi to question Perhutani's authority in forestry management.

"According to the minister, Perhutani no longer has any authority in forestry affairs in provinces across the country because its status is similar to PT Telkom and other state-owned companies. The confusing thing is that the forestry ministry still gives authority to Perhutani for slashing. The central government has not solved this problem," he said, adding that this was evidence that the central government has only halfheartedly implemented regional autonomy.

The legislature's commission concurred, saying data on forests in the province is also confusing.

Commission chairman Hidayat Zaini said according to Perhutani, there were 650,000 hectares of forest area and that 75 percent of the forest was still in good condition but according to Ministerial Decree No. 419/1999, the size of the forest area in the province was 791,000 hectares and almost 50 percent of it had been badly damaged.

"This conflicting data has raised problems both with the provincial administrations and with Perhutani in conducting reforestation programs. The regencies and Perhutani have traded blame on the conversion of forest areas to farmland and plantations in critical areas," he said.

According to the commission, environmental rehabilitation is a must in the 41 critical areas in the province, including the ones in Garut and Kuningan to avoid any natural disasters in the future.

Separately, Momo S.N., chief of the local office of Perhutani, said he was in difficult position since Perhutani was obliged to comply with the logging moratorium but on the other hand, it had been asked by the central government to produce 250,000 cubic meters of logs worth Rp 200 billion this year.

He said Perhutani had spent some Rp 250 million to finance a reforestation program in 20,000 hectares of forest in the province this year.