Conflicts between locals and timber companies to grow
Conflicts between locals and timber companies to grow
JAKARTA (JP): Conflicts between local communities and timber
companies will likely increase in the future because the people
are now more aware of their rights, a senior government official
said on Wednesday.
Director general of production forestry management Soegeng
Widodo said the government saw a growing tendency of land
disputes between locals and timber companies, adding that it was
believed these disputes were in large part driven by social
disparity.
"We need to increase law enforcement and to push regional
governments to prevent any destructive activities," Soegeng said
during a break in a hearing with House of Representatives
Commission III for agriculture and food affairs.
According to media reports, 50 forest concessionaires holding
some 10 million hectares throughout the country have halted
operations due to land disputes with local communities.
Although Soegeng was unaware of this recent development, he
said the government would investigate the validity of the locals'
demands and determine whether timber companies were illegally
operating on the land.
"We'll study whether the land they're claiming really belongs
to them," he said.
He acknowledged that local communities were not solely
responsible for the conflicts, saying timber companies might also
be ignoring the needs of the local communities or using locals'
farmland without offering fair compensation.
According to data from the government, the majority of the
logging operations in the country are owned by relatives or
associates of former president Soeharto. These people allegedly
obtained their forest concessions through their close ties with
the authorities.
These concessionaires often included farmers' land in their
logging areas without compensating the owners of the land. The
fall of Soeharto and the ensuing democratic changes in the
country made local communities more aware of their rights.
The government has just begun to study why local communities
are increasingly confronting timber companies over their forest
concessions and engaging in illegally logging, he said.
"My guess is that social jealously is also behind this trend,"
he said.
He said locals who derived no economic benefits from the
logging could easily be angered when outsiders came onto their
land and took control of vast areas of their forests.
The Indonesian Loggers Association reported last month some 77
loggers in East Kalimantan threatened to halt work in response to
continued conflicts with the local community.
Soegeng admitted that mistakes could occur in granting forest
concessions to timber companies.
He also said illegal logging was on the rise. According to
data from the World Bank, over 30 million cubic meters of timber
were harvested illegally in Indonesia from 1997 to 1998.
Soegeng said the forestry ministry had yet to calculate how
large the illegal logging problem was and how much the state had
lost as a result of the practice.
He said local communities did not view their logging as
illegal because they felt it was their right to harvest from the
surrounding forests.
Furthermore, he said the demand for logs had outgrown the
supply, causing a yearly shortage of 29.3 million cubic meters,
which prompted an increase in illegal logging.
Soegeng also said the self-assessment method used to supervise
the transportation of timber encouraged loggers to manipulate the
data.
To ease conflicts and illegal logging, the government has
obliged forest concessionaires to employ locals and undertake
community development projects, Seogeng said.
He said forest concessionaires also were told to offer stock
options to locals each time they renewed their concessions.
The government also will take action against those parties who
damage the forest for profit, he said.
He promised to step up the supervision of logging activities
by establishing inspection posts along strategic transportation
routes. (bkm/07)