Donors told to send logs for Aceh rebuilding
Donors told to send logs for Aceh rebuilding
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Conservation groups have urged donor countries to send part of their aid for the rebuilding of tsunami-ravaged Aceh in the form of logs in order not to put further pressure on the country's forests.
The World Wide Fund (WWF) Indonesia and Greenomics Indonesia said on Thursday that the demand for timber in Aceh would be massive and this could pose serious problems for Indonesia's forests, where illegal logging is already causing major environmental strains.
A study conducted by the two organizations showed that Aceh would need between some 1.6 million and 3.2 million cubic meters of lumber, or the equivalent of between four million and eight million cubic meters of logs.
Greenomics said that the government could provide Aceh with almost 700,000 cubic meters of logs and almost 1,800 cubic meters of lumber that had been confiscated from illegal loggers in seven provinces on Sumatra island.
The timber industry in North Sumatra, Jambi, Lampung and Riau could only contribute about 950 cubic meters of lumber and about 22,700 sheets of plywood, it added.
Greenomics Indonesia executive director Elfian Effendi said that with some 500,000 people displaced by the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami, the government would need to build about 10,000 barracks to shelter them.
The building of the barracks would require up to an additional 150,000 cubic meters of lumber, or the equivalent of around 375,000 cubic meters of logs, he added.
Elfian, an Acehnese himself, said Aceh's forests could only supply around 50,000 cubic meters of logs.
Forcing Aceh's forests to supply the necessary logs and lumber would lead to illegal logging, he added.
Elfian said that environmental groups were worried that any further pressure on the forests, in which an estimated 70 percent of logging is illegal, could lead to severe flooding and more landslides.
He said that Indonesia would not be able to meet the enormous demand for timber for reconstruction in Aceh as well as its other domestic and international requirements.
He explained that with current local and international demand standing at over 65,000,000 cubic meters of timber per year, Indonesian forests were already being overlogged despite the country's 2005 legal logging quota of 5.4 million.
Meanwhile, WWF Indonesia executive director Mubariq Ahmad said the ecological condition of the forests was already critical and that the country was already having trouble meeting the existing international demand for timber.
Regional Representatives Council (DPD) member Sarwono Kusumaadmadja, a former environment minister, supported the suggestion that donor countries send aid in the form of logs to Aceh.
"This would be very useful for reducing the pressure on Indonesia's tropical forests. It is very difficult to formulate sustainable development principles in an emergency situation," he said.
Sarwono said the DPD and Greenomics had presented their recommendations through the forestry and environment ministers.
A written proposal on the matter would be sent to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a meeting between the DPD and the President's aides scheduled for next month.(005)