Forest harvest limited

JAKARTA (JP): Director General of Forest Utilization Titus Sarijanto said yesterday that timber companies must not fell more than their annual quota.

He said the forestry and plantations ministry was considering whether to impose a penalty on those who breached the regulation.

Titus said that timber companies were required to submit their annual logging estimates to his office for approval but only 154 of the 430 forest concessionaires had fulfilled the requirement.

He was speaking at a workshop on the growth and yield of Indonesian forests held by the ministry in cooperation with the German-funded Deutsche Gesellschaft Fr Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).

"I hope that this workshop will be useful for forestry officials and forest concessionaires in managing forest in an environmentally sustainable manner." (gis)