Concessionaires barely help locals: Seminar

JAKARTA (JP): The national system of forest management should be revised to let locals enjoy the benefits of logging, a seminar urged yesterday.

"The current system of forest management has not yet strictly integrated and accommodated small business and locals," said Adi Sasono, president director of the Center for Information and Development Studies, which sponsored the one-day seminar.

Adi and other speakers -- including the state forestry firm PT Inhutani IV's president director, Moch. Toha M.B., and Indonesian Forum for Environment's director Emmy Hafild -- said forest concessionaires had done little to improve the welfare of people living near their concessions.

Adi quoted Ministry of Forestry's data as saying that the country's 574 concessionaires had spent only Rp 1 billion (about US$415,000) helping 26,000 families living near their concessions in 1993/1994 under the forest village guidance program. This equaled Rp 35,000 a family.

The concessionaires' income reached Rp 16 trillion that year, he said.

Emmy said forest residents, such as those in Kalimantan, lived in worse conditions now than several decades ago when they were allowed to cultivate forests.

She said the 1971 Forestry Law had awarded concessionaires the sole right to cultivate forests in their concessions and deprived locals of their traditional livelihood.

"In such remote areas like Kalimantan, there are few ways to make a living. Among them is cultivating the forest. But, sadly, the locals are no longer allowed to do that," she said.

Emmy said many forest residents now made their livings by "stealing trees from their own forests".

She called for a revision of the forestry law to acknowledge natives' claims to ownership of forests and let them cultivate the forests.

Indonesia has 143 million hectares of forest, including 64 million hectares of production forests.

Concession holders control 61.7 million hectares of production forest, the rest is controlled by state forestry firms and government forestry cervices.

Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo, in his speech presented by his staff, said the World Forestry Conference VIII in Jakarta in 1978 with the Forest for People theme had called for forest exploitation to benefit the public in general and locals in particular.

He said the government had been trying to improve the locals' welfare since the beginning of the New Order administration.

Toha said concessionaires had many opportunities to benefit locals. They could hire locals as subcontractors for planting seedlings, land clearing, forest maintenance, construction of roads and base camps and other things.

"In reality, concessionaires do most of these activities by themselves," he said.

Toha said the government had to regulate concessionaires to involve locals in projects.

"At least, the government called on them to do that. I've never heard that call," he said. (jsk)