Concessionaires warned

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo threatened yesterday not only to revoke the licenses of forest concessionaires which violated environmental protection regulations but also to sue them for breaching the regulations and the civil code.

Djamaludin said that license revocation alone had failed to deter forest concessionaires from destroying forests and the environment.

"When their concessions are revoked, it is the government which in fact suffers the losses because it has to manage the damaged forests, while the concessionaires have, in a way, benefited from the forests," he said.

Djamaludin said the reluctance of his ministry to use the environmental law to sue offending concessionaires was because it was doubtful whether the Ministry of Forestry or the office of the State Minister of Environment was entitled to sue concessionaires on behalf of the government.

The revocation of concessionaires' licenses is based on Governmental Regulation No. 21/1970, which says the Ministry of Forestry will revoke concessionaires' licenses if they continue to violate regulations after three warnings from the ministry. (jsk)