Govt delays endorsing logging edict
Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta
The government has delayed the issuance of a government regulation in lieu of law (perpu) aimed at stopping illegal logging due to fears about its possible impact on the social and political situations.
The regulation, which was initially scheduled to be issued in May, was planned as an emergency measure to stop rampant illegal logging, which is considered the main factor behind the rapid destruction of the nation's virgin forests.
Minister of Forestry Muhammad Prakosa said President Megawati Soekarnoputri had dropped plans to sign the regulation in May, saying that conditions were not conducive for the issuance of the regulation and that the regulation could cause difficulties during the upcoming presidential election runoff.
"It's a matter of momentum. I think the government will probably issue it after the election. But we are still not sure about that yet," said Prakosa after a meeting with the Indonesian Association of Forestry Enterprises (APHI) on Tuesday.
Prakosa explained that the draft regulation had been draft and finalized by the Ministry of Forestry, along with the State Secretary, a couple of months ago.
A government report estimates that illegal logging has left 43 million hectares of land in a critical condition and caused the nation to lose US$3.5 billion worth of trees every year.
The proposed regulation was expected to eventually be converted into a special law on illegal logging, outside the prevailing criminal law, which is considered to have failed in preventing illegal logging.
According to Prakosa, the regulation would have enabled law enforcement officials, under the command of the Ministry of Forestry, to prosecute illegal loggers immediately after they were arrested, and would allow the authorities to seize whatever was used in the crime, including vehicles and boats used to transport illegally cut logs.
Those suspected of illegal logging activities would be tried by an special court specifically set up to handle such cases, with convicted illegal loggers facing a maximum penalty of death.
The law would also allow law enforcers to arrest suspected illegal loggers based solely on intelligence reports.
A number of environmentalists said they suspected the delay in issuing the regulation was primarily intended as an incentive to get the business community, including illegal logging businesses, to fund the election campaign of a "certain" presidential candidate.
Many illegal logging activities are reportedly backed up by rogue elements of the armed forces and the police.
Elsewhere, Prakosa said the ministry would soon issue a number of incentives to encourage businesses to invest in plantation timber estates as part of the effort to develop sustainable timber resources for the forestry industry.
Among the planned incentives were lifting the ban on the export of logs felled in plantation timber estates, simplifying the procedures for investing in the plantation timber sector, and extending the length of the concessions plantation timber estates to 100 years from the current 25 years.
Concessionaires would also be freed of the obligation to seek approval from the Ministry of Forestry for their annual plantation operation plans. At present, such plans must be discussed and approved by the ministry prior to their implementation.