Govt to raise logging quota 30%

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's ailing forestry-based industries are to get a boost, with the government promising to increase the logging quota next year in order to satisfy the local industry's production capacity and help create jobs.

Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban told The Jakarta Post recently that the ministry was planning to expand the quota by around 30 percent to 11 million cubic meters from the 8.4 million cubic meters currently allowed.

"We haven't come up with an exact policy on this (quota) yet. However, we estimate that the quota could be increased by around 30 percent based on the growth of trees in our industrial timber plantations," said Kaban.

The quota will include some 8.1 million cubic meters of timber felled from natural forests, with the remaining 2.9 million cubic meters coming from industrial plantations.

Kaban said the rise in the quota was aimed at revitalizing the country's forestry-based industries, which it is hoped will contribute foreign exchange earnings of up to US$8 billion next year from a projected $5 billion this year.

The ministry also hopes to collect more taxes from the industry and from royalties on timber sales, which will then be put toward forest rehabilitation .

The plan is likely to spark protests from environmentalists.

Kaban, who is also the chairman of the Moon and Crescent Party (PBB), argued that reducing the logging quota was not the answer to curbing illegal logging as the low quota had prompted most forestry-based companies to seek illegal timber to keep their operations running.

"As I have repeated several times, reducing the logging quota is not a wise way of curbing illegal logging," he said.

The great discrepancy between demand and availability of timber under the quota has been cited as a key contributor to widespread illegal logging across the country.

At present, the forestry-based industry has an installed capacity of about 42 million cubic meters per year, but the industry is flooded with illegal timber sourced from already depleted natural forests.

Kaban, however, pledged that he would force forestry-based companies that are underperforming to merge or to sell their shares to healthier companies in order to maximize the use of their forestry concessions.

"The rise in the quota will also be followed by a new regulatory package issued by the ministry, which will consist of efforts to sustain natural forests and make the industry more efficient," he said.