City to crack down on illegal timber

City to crack down on illegal timber

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration hopes to crack down on illegal timber
and plywood, which are mostly shipped from Kalimantan and Sumatra
to Jakarta.

"Between one and two million cubic meters of forestry products
are shipped here from 16 provinces. About 70 percent of it is
illegal," the City Economic Office's Sukri Bey said on Friday.

After meeting Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall, he told
reporters that they would cooperate with the police, the
prosecutor's office and other provinces concerned. They would
also place officers in timber processing centers and sea ports to
monitor the illegal business.

He said that the illegal forestry products, which was valued
at some Rp 260 billion, were smuggled from Kalimantan, Sumatra,
Papua, Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.

He said police and the prosecutor's office had often seized
the illegal products and sold them in auctions.

"But it was still unclear where the money from the auctions
go. The city administration never received any money," he said.

He suggested that 40 percent of the money derived from the
forestry products' auctions should be for the city
administration, 40 percent for provinces where the products came
from, and the remaining 20 percent for the central government.

"Governor Sutiyoso supported the proposal to fight wood
smuggling here," he claimed.

Sukri revealed several timber processing centers, including in
Klender and Ujung Menteng, East Jakarta would be closely
monitored.

He said the administration would also monitor transportation
of the products to sea ports here, including Tanjung Priok, Kali
Baru, Sunda Kelapa and Marunda in North Jakarta.

"We will build monitoring posts in the places and re-activate
the existing monitoring posts," Sukri said without giving further
details on the number of the monitoring posts.

He said some of the logs were processed here before they were
transported outside Jakarta, including for export, and domestic
needs.

However, he admitted that the security authorities found it
difficult to prevent the wood smuggling because the owners were
often unknown.

"We also find problems in storing the confiscated products as
we do not have enough space," he said.

However, he said, if the suggestion for sharing income from
the auctioned logs, could be approved, some of the money could
cover the fight against illegal logging.