Facing up to destruction of forests

By Suhardi Suryadi

JAKARTA (JP): At the October meeting of the Consultative Group on Indonesia in Tokyo, a number of donor countries raised the crucial issue of forest devastation in Indonesia. The commitment of the Indonesian government to forest conservation even became one requirement for the extending of further loans. Given the present condition of Indonesia's forests, the CGI's political pressure on Indonesia is understandable.

The past five years have witnessed various parties committing rampant forest destruction in all provinces. Damage to forest functions seems indiscriminate as it is found in protected forests and other conservation areas like national parks. The fatal inundations and landslides that hit Nias Island recently may be taken as an example of how forest devastation can inflict huge damage in terms of loss of life and material losses.

There is mounting concern over forest devastation in Indonesia following the increasing intensity of deforestation. Up to 1998 alone, deforestation involved up to 2 million hectares a year. The World Resource Institute even estimated in 1987 that the loss of virgin forest stood at 70 percent owing to excessive domestic consumption and the export of forest products. In the estimation of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the demand of the timber industry for forest products, both domestically and for export, stands at about 100 million cubic meters, of which 21.9 million cubic meters come from imports.

The remaining 78.1 million cubic meters must therefore come from primary forests while, in fact, the natural forest regeneration process has only a very low level of success.

In spite of the trillions of rupiah invested in reforestation and forest conservation, the government and forest concessionaires alike have scarcely managed to produce any of the desired results. For about 30 years forest concessionaires have been largely responsible for extensive damage to an estimated 48 million hectares of forests across the country.

Viewed from their biodiversity value and the loss sustained, the revenues contributed by the forest concessionaires to the state's coffers have been very insignificant. Worse, part of these revenues go into the pockets of high-ranking officials and their cronies who ironically blame locals as the culprits for the damage.

One of the main factors contributing to forest devastation have also been inconsistency in the policies adopted and hence demoralization. The government's policy on forest development as set forth in the laws and action plans has been unable to effectively guarantee the success of forest conservation and the improvement of public welfare. The wordings in the regulations can be construed as ambivalent in nature and the policies themselves are more oriented towards generating foreign exchange earnings, making it relatively easy for interested parties to use or abuse loopholes.

Situations fraught with corruption, collusion and nepotism for over 30 years have made forestry officers demoralized in enforcing the law.

Public dissatisfaction over unjust sharing of forest resources and the government's inability to implement good governance has added to forest destruction.

A study by Indonesia's Transparent Society showed that 74 out of 925 ministerial forest concessions issued by the forestry ministry during the period 1995-2000 deviating from existing rules.

The government's leniency in implementing the law is seen from its failure to revoke the concession of PT Angkawijaya even after the company was proved to have blatantly committed illegal logging and gravely harmed the ecosystem of the productive forest around the Rinjani National Park in Lombok, despite the fact that the company is no longer in operation.

Government Regulation No. 6 1999 stipulates that a concessionaire can only get a maximum forest area of 100 hectares within a province. Yet PT Suka Jaya Makmur has a total area of 171,350 hectares in West Kalimantan while six other companies have total forest areas of 1,28 million hectares in six provinces.

Indonesia will pay a high price for this inconsistency. The people who felt that they had been robbed of the land or deprived of their "rights" to the forests during the New Order are now going on the rampage, cutting the trees down, intimidating concessionaires or annexing their concessions.

The government's failure in forest development is attributable to three factors:

First, the government has failed to safeguard forest conservation from certain parties who have access to power and capital.

Second, the government has been unable to manage sustainable forest resources by developing non-timber related products and services as a source of revenues.

Third, the government has failed to develop the local human resources living in and around forest areas and to boost awareness of their responsibilities and participation in forest conservation.

Indonesian forests, it is often said, are the lungs of the world. Nearly 60 million people in this country are heavily dependent on forest resources, including water. The forests here are on the brink of the tolerable limit of destruction as nearly 70 percent of the total area has been severely damaged. In the meantime, many issues concerning the environment raised in the reform agenda have hardly been responded to by the government. There has been no significant change in political policy over forestry except for minor amendments to the legislation and small measures taken involving a limited role for society.

Timber exploitation by powerful parties is still rampant under the pretext of the national interest, even though it deprives the local people of their rights.

The new freedom of each region to implement its own policy on development may have lately added to the pace of forest damage as some areas with limited economic resources have tended to make use of their forests as the main source of locally-generated income.

In East Kalimantan, by only paying Rp 200 million, one can easily secure a concession from the forestry ministry for the right to manage a 100-hectare forest plot. And in Jember, East Java, the local administration has issued gold mining concessions for the Metu Betiri National Park.

We always face the dilemma of competing claims arising from forest conservation and economic development, making resources development a complex matter involving international and national interests. The plan to grow one million plants is only wishful thinking and will not produce anything of value.

The real challenge for the government is to synchronize the aspects of social justice with the agenda of forest development. Failure to do this will confirm public perception that the appointment of the Minister of Forestry M. Prakosa from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle is designed to turn the ministry into the party's cash cow.

The writer is Deputy Director for the Jakarta-based Institute of Research, Education and Information (LP3ES).