Govt cuts annual logging rights by 40%
Govt cuts annual logging rights by 40%
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry has reduced the annual
logging rights of most forest concessionaires by 40 percent due
to their failure to meet government regulations, and is warning
that they may lose their licenses if they cannot improve
performance.
"More than 70 percent of the 580 forest concessionaires failed
to meet government regulations on forestry management last fiscal
year and we cut their annual logging rights by 40 percent this
fiscal year," Minister of Forestry Djamaloedin Soeryohadikoesoemo
told reporters here on Thursday.
"If they fail to meet the regulations again this fiscal year,
we will revoke their concessions next fiscal year," he said.
According to the minister, concessionaires which operate
industrial forests under a transmigration scheme are required to
allocate 50 percent of jobs in their areas for local people and
the other 50 percent for transmigrants, who have been moved from
Java and other densely-populated islands.
Djamaloedin said he had asked around 100 concessionaires
operating under the transmigration scheme to help people working
in a conversion forest to get land certificates.
Concessionaires operating under a so-called village
development scheme are required to put aside a certain portion of
their revenue to finance the development of projects specially
designed to improve the living of local villagers.
Djamaloedin noted that the licensing of concessionaires is
aimed mainly at promoting the welfare of local people besides the
generating of tax revenues for the government. Concessionaires,
therefore, are required to provide social facilities, such as
schools and hospitals, for local people, employ them and procure
goods and services from them.
Djamaloedin said if all concessionaires abide by the
government regulations, conflicts between forest concessionaires
and indigenous people would never happen.
Earlier this year, Dayak Bentian tribespeople in East
Kalimantan, whose traditional forests were awarded to a
concessionaire, PT Hutan Mahligai, in 1993, protested and
demanded that the government revoke its license because it has
been destroying their habitat. (rid)