Government to crack down on natiowide illegal logging

JAKARTA (JP): The government will launch a joint operation to crack down on rampant illegal logging which causes up to US$4 billion in losses every year, Justice and Human Rights Minister Baharuddin Lopa said on Thursday.

Lopa said that President Abdurrahman Wahid had instructed the forestry department to lead the operation.

"The cabinet meeting has decided that illegal logging can no longer be tolerated because these activities cost us billions of dollar in losses every year," Lopa said after a Cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office.

Lopa said the operation would involve law enforcement and that the government would bring to justice "not only those who are directly involved on the ground, but also the masterminds".

"We will be taking resolute action against those who have been masterminding and financing illegal logging," Lopa asserted.

He said the joint task force would involve the National Police chief, the Indonesian Military chief, the Attorney General and Lopa himself.

Forestry minister Marzuki Usman, who was also present on Thursday, said that the operation would be carried out in stages, with the first phase focusing on Leuser and Tanjung Puting national parks on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands respectively.

Illegal logging, already rampant during the regime of former president Soeharto, has intensified following his fall and the onset of the economic crisis which has been affecting the country since mid-1997.

Marzuki said that the government would also move to prevent any return of devastating forest and brush fires which have caused extensive destruction of the country's forests in past years as well as blanketing the region with hazardous haze.

He said the extensive forest fires that hit the country in the dry season of 1997 caused at least US$9 billion dollars in losses.

"If we do not handle this together, it is not unlikely that the fires will occur again," Marzuki said without elaborating.(byg)