Concessions damaging rain forests
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaloedin Soeryohadikoesoemo yesterday aired his concern over ongoing environmental destruction which has caused water shortages on Java Island and desolation of rain forests on other islands.
"On islands other than Java, concessionaires still log forests without following the principles of sustainability. They focus on their own profit-oriented objectives," Djamaloedin said during a swearing in a ceremony for forestry officials here.
He instructed ministry officials to increase control and supervision over the operations of concessionaires. He warned repeatedly that international communities are also watching the way Indonesia manages its rain forests.
Based on the latest satellite analysis, Indonesia, which holds the third largest area of forests in the world, currently has 113 million hectares of forests, which hold some 2.4 billion cubic meters of timber.
The Indonesian government, in a bid to preserve forests while exploiting them, has introduced a selective cutting program, which prohibits timber firms from cutting trees with a diameter of less than 50 centimeters.
Timber companies are required -- amid the acknowledgement of government officials that law enforcement is still in question -- to replant the exploited forests within a 35-year harvesting program.
Djamaloedin said yesterday that local administrations will be asked to become shareholders in certain privately-run timber estates to help control their forest management.
He said the companies to be designated are those which have proven to be unable to function properly under the government's program.
Challenge
In a related development, the minister briefed officials of his ministry about the challenge of rimbawan -- an Indonesian word for people working in or making a living from forests. This matter has become an increasingly complicated one.
He said the issue has developed in such a way as to exhibit a number of aspects such as economic, social, environmental and political elements.
The minister pointed out that in the 1950s, the only rimbawan issue was that of technical methods used in the development of teakwood forests in Java.
In the 1970s, the issue became entwined with the boom of timber industries, during which concessionaires outside of Java were allowed to exploit forests with minimum supervision.
"The activity of forestry nowadays deals with not only planting, logging and selling timber, but also with the socio- economic aspects of the society, the global environment and bio- diversity," Djamaloedin said.
"The water supply is a big problem now, while on the other hand, the soil deprivation and the need for timber is still going on following the rise of population and the more rapid pace of development."
Djamaloedin yesterday inducted six officials, I Gusti Made Tantra, Soewardi, Amir Hamzah, Abas T.S., Hubertus Johannes Andries and Hartadi, to take new posts in the ministry.
He told the newly inducted officials that the most important political issue in terms of forestry is the benefit of forests for people living around them.
"Those people traditionally depend on forests for their day-to-day necessities. Most of them are not well educated and have not enjoyed the results of our development," he said, urging his ministry's officials to develop an appropriate approach to cooperating with the people.
He said that the indigenous people do not necessarily live in under-developed communities. He cited the fact that those local people have comparative advantages to so-called modern communities. (09)