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)