'Central govt not serious about forestry management'

'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.