Changing forest policies fail to curb deforestation

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Every hour, loggers in Indonesia's forests fell trees at a rate fast enough to lay out six FIFA-standard soccer fields in the cleared area. Overnight, the expanse is the equivalent of South Jakarta's 145.75 hectares.

Indonesia's tropical rainforests are disappearing, with only 28 percent of the total 162 million hectares of virgin forest that existed in the early 1950s -- or around 40 million hectares -- remaining.

Many observers blame the government's disregard for the principles of sustainable development as the reason behind the rapid shrinking of Indonesia's rainforests, which are the third largest in the world after the forests in Brazil and the Congo.

A recent study by the World Bank revealed that Indonesia's deforestation rate had reached about two million hectares per year since 1996 as a result of reckless logging. Without immediate and drastic changes, the study predicted that Sumatra's forests would disappear in 2005, followed by Kalimantan's in 2010.

However, after over three decades of flawed forestry policies, "no significant effort has been made by the government to address the deforestation problem," said Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) executive director Longgena Ginting.

"The government only treats the symptoms of the main issues by merely carrying out raids on illegal logging, smuggling, or forming a task force to restructure the timber industry. Such measures are useless," he remarked.

Illegal logging, according to Ginting, is an "inevitable" occurrence due to the gap between timber supply and demand, as well as low domestic prices. The latter has encouraged smuggling.

The government's response -- such as frequent raids and the arrest of smugglers -- barely touches the roots of the problem.

The government established the Interdepartmental Committee on Forestry (IDCF) in 2000 to deal with illegal logging, handle forest fires, manage the restructuring of forest-based businesses as well as the mapping of forests. Since then, Indonesia has seen four ministers of forestry, and yet nothing has been done to restore the forests. Illegal logging and smuggling remain a good business due to a continuing increase in demand.

According to Ginting, the overblown capacity of industrial logging that results from a continuing increase in demand and the uncertainty faced by concessionaires regarding the terms of their obligation to manage and sustain the forest are the core of all problems related to deforestation.

Led by Walhi, environmentalists have been campaigning for a cessation in logging. They have also called for the reenactment of the log export ban that was lifted in 1998 under the letter of intent signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give a breathing space for the government to change forestry sector policies and to save the diminishing forests.

In response, the associations of plywood and pulp and paper producers have demanded that the government rescue the industries on the grounds that they contribute 9.29 percent out of 12.25 percent, or about 75 percent, of the country's non-oil/gas foreign exchange earnings.

The demand has met strong criticism, especially as many of the plywood and pulp and paper companies are deep in debt. Currently, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) is handling the sale of the assets of 128 forest-based companies to cover their Rp 21.9 trillion (US$24.7 billion) foreign debt, tagging the price at a mere 20 percent of their nominal value.

Ginting expressed fear that such treatment might not benefit efforts to restructure forest-based industries because it opened up the possibility of former owners reclaiming the companies and running them as before.

Ginting said that not all of the companies deserved to be rescued due to their poor performance in sustainable forestry. He suggested the government salvage assets now in the hands of IBRA only after tight screening to determine the companies that deserved to be bailed out.

"I suggest the government determine what companies deserve to be kept alive through a due diligence mechanism carried out by an independent party. Only those companies that have potential, sustain the ecology and promote social development should pass the selection process," he said.