EU blasts RI over poor forest management

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Representatives of the European Union (EU) at the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) blasted Indonesia's poor capability of enforcing sustainable forest management during its recent meeting with the Indonesian government.

The EU, in a statement read out during the meeting last week, said the Indonesian government had little on-the-ground evidence of success in resolving the country's forestry crisis.

Despite the criticism, donor countries grouped in the forum agreed to provide US$3.14 billion in loans to help the country's cash-strapped budget.

Despite Ministry of Forestry efforts, the report said, illegal logging had been steadily increasing, forest-based industry had not started and policy initiatives toward sustainable forest management had yet to be effectively implemented.

"Non-sustainable and illegal logging has led to a situation where the costs resulting from the incidence of natural disaster, such as landslides, flooding, sedimentation and loss of biodiversity is by far more compared to the possible revenue received from such non-sustainable practices," it said.

The EU also reported that development policies and illegal practices throughout the 1980s and 1990s had resulted in the rapid depletion of natural forests by approximately 1.7 million hectares per year.

However, the EU acknowledged that the Indonesian government faced a complex forestry problem that could not be dealt with by the Ministry of Forestry alone.

The EU agreed that a collaborative approach was required to resolve such issues.

The EU suggested that if the government wished to further advance its commitment to developing sound and robust sustainable forest management practices, a cross-sectoral approach had to be part of the process.

"We therefore recommend the government adopt this approach and seriously consider the revitalization of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Forestry (IDCF) as the forum through which the forestry crisis can be effectively addressed."

They advised that the committee should be tasked with priority actions, including effective law enforcement to curb illegal logging, restructuring forest-based industry to reduce demand on remaining natural forests, and implementing policies that strengthen responsible decentralization and secure land tenure resource rights.

"As the plight of Indonesia's forests has become a major concern to the international community, we look forward to working with the government in overcoming these complex issues."

According to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB), Indonesian forests produce between 33 million and 75 million cubic meters of timber per year, while a sustainable yield is estimated at about 22 million cubic meters per year.