Few concessionaires performed well in 1996

JAKARTA (JP): Only 30 percent of the country's 491 forest concessionaires performed well last year, Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said yesterday.

Djamaludin said that, although the success rate was small, it was better than the 25 percent recorded in 1995.

Most of the other concessionaires had "adequate" to "poor" performances last year, which could lead to the revocation of their concessions unless they improved quickly, he said.

Djamaludin would not elaborate the criteria used to determine the concessionaires' performances, but stated that the government used standards similar to those of the Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency and the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires.

It was reported last year that a pilot project's assessment of 61 concessionaires concluded that only nine were "adequately prepared" to meet ecolabeling requirements but none were actually "prepared".

Furthermore, according to a separate report, the government refused to extend the logging permits of 68 of the 188 concessionaires which had submitted their annual logging plans for the 1996/1997 fiscal year because of their poor performances.

Director General of Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto said yesterday the increased number of well-performing concessionaires last year mostly resulted from stricter government control.

This was achieved particularly after the establishment of the Joint Team for Forest Security in 1995, he said.

The team, which involves officials from the Ministry of Forestry, police, the Attorney General's Office and the Armed Forces, was set up to monitor timber trade and distribution. It also has the authority to take on-the-spot legal action against offenders.

Titus said the goodwill of concessionaires was not enough to change their attitudes toward preserving the country's forests.

Since the early 1970s, when the government started awarding forest concessions to private companies, the licenses of 111 concessions have been revoked because of poor forest management. The country has about 491 forest concessionaires. (pwn)