EU urged to reject KL wood products

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Forestry Muhammad Prakosa is urging the European Union (EU) to reject timber products from Malaysia, saying they are mostly made of illegally cut logs collected from Indonesia's natural forests.

"We are proposing that the EU reject timber products from Malaysia as there are indications that most of them are made of logs taken from illicit sources," said Prakosa on the sidelines of a media gathering on Tuesday.

He explained that currently the Indonesian government and the EU representative in Jakarta were discussing joint measures aimed at preserving Indonesia's severely damaged natural forests.

During the talks, Indonesia had proposed an article to be incorporated in the agreement, insisting that EU countries should screen all timber products from Malaysia and reject those suspected of using illegally cut logs from Indonesia, he said.

"EU is considering our proposal. It is likely to be approved," he said adding that the agreement was expected to be signed at the end of this year.

Last June, the Indonesian government managed to bring Japan to the negotiating table to sign a similar agreement.

Under the agreement, Japan agreed to reject timber products from Malaysia, Singapore and China, using Indonesian trees as raw materials.

Prakosa has frequently lashed out at Singapore, Malaysia and China for taking most of the illegally cut logs smuggled out of Indonesia.

Prakosa had planned to visit the countries to talk with the countries' governments on possible solutions, however, he recently dropped the plan.

"There will be no bilateral talks with Malaysia and Singapore since they are uncooperative. To date, both countries consider they have the right to legally use the smuggled logs, and blame Indonesia for its lack of preventative efforts.

"So what we will do instead is to approach buyer countries to reject their products," he said.

Illegal logging has become one of the country's major problems as the practice has caused considerable damage to Indonesia's rain forests and the quality of the environment in general.

In many areas, illegal logging also involved government officials and military personnel.

According to environmentalists, illegal logging produces some 50.7 million cubic meters of timber annually, resulting in financial losses to the state of at least Rp 30.42 trillion (US$3.37 billion).

They said at least 1.45 million hectares of the country's forest were lost annually due to logging. Legal logging is conducted only on 0.67 million of the total acreage.