Concessionaires barely help locals: Seminar
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)