Concessionaires told to set aside wood for locals

Concessionaires told to set aside wood for locals

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo
said yesterday only 45 forest concessionaires, or about 10
percent of the total number, have allocated a portion of their
log harvests for local communities.

He said that 405 out of about 450 forest concessionaires
operating in Indonesia have yet to set aside at least 5 percent
of their log harvests for local people, as stipulated by the
government earlier this year.

The stipulation not only calls for the concessionaires to
provide locals with quality wood, but also to ensure an adequate
supply at marketplaces at reasonable prices.

Speaking at a hearing with members of the House of
Representatives Commission IV on forestry and agricultural
affairs, Djamaludin said the total log volume obtained from the
45 concessionaires has reached only 84,165 cubic meters.

He said he would send warnings to the negligent
concessionaires and would revoke their concessions if they failed
to respond after a third warning.

Djamaludin calculated that if log production from natural
forests currently reached 22.7 million cubic meters and if wood-
processing cut back this amount to 11 million cubic meters, then
a 5 percent allocation of the processed wood by each of the
country's 450 concessionaires would provide local communities
with at least 550,000 cubic meters of wood.

He considered the 84,165 cubic meters collected from
concessionaires so far as being far from satisfactory.

Djamaludin said that the low supply of wood at local markets
had led to illegal trade of timber.

Commenting on this issue, Director General of Forest
Utilization Titus Sarijanto was convinced that the government's
campaign against illegal trade of timber would not increase
timber prices on the domestic market.

"The prices which are currently created with the existence of
illegal timber are abnormal. Once we can get rid of illegal
timber, the market will have its own way of creating the
prices... And people will get used to the new prices," he said.

He was also confident that the situation would not cause a
slump in exports.

"What the wood-processing industry must learn to do is give
added value to its products. This way, companies can get more
revenues for the same amount of wood harvested," he said.

Shortage

According to recent reports, a number of large wood-processing
companies are currently suffering raw material shortages.

Titus said the total production capacity of Indonesia's wood-
processing industries is presently 48.2 million cubic meters a
year, consisting of 31.95 million cubic meters for the sawmill
industry and 16.25 million cubic meters for the plywood industry.

The wood-processing industries, however, have an operational
capacity of only 45 million to 46 million cubic meters a year.

Meanwhile, supplies for these industries, which include a
certain amount of trees cut from the opening up of the one
million hectares of peat land in Central Kalimantan, reach only
about 36 million cubic meters a year.

As a way out, the government has encouraged the industries to
apply technologies with minimum waste and restructure their
machinery.

Titus said yesterday there are currently technologies that can
help companies carry out such short-term plans.

These include installing machinery that is capable of peeling
off layers of wood barks until the core diameter of a log reaches
seven centimeters -- smaller than the 20 to 25 centimeter
diameter core produced by most machinery currently used -- and
cutting back on industrial waste from 30 percent to 20 percent.

"This waste can further be burned to generate the boilers used
in the plywood industry," he said.

Titus said Indonesia's plywood industry production reached
nine million cubic meters a year, while state revenues obtained
from this sector in the past five years reached an average of
US$4.5 million each year, with an increasing trend. (pwn)