Deforestation accelerated as regions issue concession

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Deforestation of the country's already much-depleted natural forests has accelerated as local administrations are currently in a race to give businesspeople hundreds of timber concession licenses in order to help fill the regions' coffers.

The Ministry of Forestry estimated that the "illegal" licenses granted by the regencies over the past two years covered thus far an estimated area of 2 million hectares (m ha).

Director of forest exploitation at the Ministry of Forestry Lumisu Mangiwa said the problem had become the subject of dispute between the ministry and local administrations as the latter refused to comply, claiming their right over the use of forests.

"Issuance of the licenses has become uncontrollable. Due to the autonomy law, local administrations now reject all orders and regulations made by the central government," Lumisu told The Jakarta Post last week.

The ministry, said Lumisu, had declared that any timber resulting from such concessions was illegal.

According to Lumisu, the Ministry of Forestry had banned the issuance of forest concession licenses since 1999 in order to rehabilitate destroyed natural forests, as deforestation had affected 40.26 m ha of the country's 120 m ha of natural forest.

Lumisu's statement has further highlighted the tough challenge faced by Indonesia, both the government and its citizens, in its struggle to protect its forests and the complexity of the causes behind rapid deforestation.

The statement came just days after donor countries from the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) criticized Indonesia's failure to protect its forests.

The CGI working group on forestry, in its statement issued during the CGI meeting early last week in Bali, attributed the failure to the lack of integrated efforts by related government agencies to deal with the problem.

Prior to the CGI meeting, a string of reports had been released by a number of international agencies about rapid deforestation in Indonesia, including an embarrassing report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (IEA), which warned about the surge of illegal logging in Indonesia and accused the military and police of involvement in the illegal practice.

Illegal timber was exported to Malaysia, China, Vietnam and India at a rate of 10 million cubic meters per year, resulting in Rp 7.2 trillion-worth of annual losses to the country, according to the report.

Apart from illegal loggers, Lumisu said, forest concession- holders were the main culprits behind deforestation. Some 43 percent of the country's forest concession areas were either in a critical state or no longer productive.

Lumisu said the ministry was powerless to deal with the regions's forest authorities that issued forest concession licenses as they were not subordinate to the ministry.

He said the ministry had sent its officials several times to stop logging by businesses that had gained licenses from the regencies. However, they were forced to flee by hoodlums hired by the regents.

The ministry has, several times, asked the National Police and the Attorney General's Office to curb the illegal practice, but the measures taken by both agencies, if any, have thus far borne no results.