Illegal logging costs $609m, environmental destruction

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Widespread illegal logging costs US$609 million annually in environmental destruction throughout the country, an expert has said.

Senior lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) Bintang Simangunsong said here on Thursday that the main impacts were in the form of carbon consumption, landslides, floods and non-wood product extraction.

According to Bintang, only 18.9 million hectares of 46.8 million hectares assessed were primary or virgin forest, while 14.3 million hectares were already destroyed, more than half of which was due to illegal logging. The destroyed forests could no longer be expected to produce wood.

"This is complete mismanagement of the country's forests by the government. What can we can do with the damaged forest? -- nothing," he told a media conference ahead of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) meeting next week.

Bintang said at least 1.45 million hectares of forest were felled annually, of which only 0.67 million hectares was legal felling.

He said carbon consumption in the forests could be worth U$113 per hectare, while non-wood products could reach $9 per hectare.

The government said on Wednesday that illegal logging activities produced 50.7 million cubic meters of timber annually, resulting in financial losses to the state of at least Rp 30.42 trillion ($3.37 billion).

According to Bintang, illegal loggers enjoyed most of the income generated from logging activities.

"At least 50 percent of the revenue goes to illegal loggers, 30 percent to private companies and the government only gets 20 percent," he said.

"This certainly represents a huge transfer of money from the people to a few illegal loggers and private firms," Bintang added.

Indonesian military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto acknowledged on Wednesday that certain military personnel were behind many illegal logging operations in the country and promised to crack down on them.

TNI and the Ministry of Forestry agreed on Wednesday to set up a joint team to go after illegal loggers throughout the country.

Environmental activists said that overcapacity of the country's pulp, saw, and plywood mills had also encouraged people to engage in illegal logging activities.

According to data issued by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the total capacity of the country's pulp mills, sawmills and plywood factories is 63 million cubic meters per year, while the total legal timber produce is 12 million cubic meters per year, meaning there is an annual shortage of almost 51 million cubic meters of timber.

And to make matters worse, the illegal timber is also directly exported to neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, China and India.

The government has tried to crack down on illegal logging through various means, such as agreements with timber importers in receiving countries to refuse illegal timber, and reaching agreements on joint operations with TNI and the police, but the results are far from satisfactory.

The joint operation, for example, confiscated only 26,600 cubic meters of illegal timber in 2001.

Walhi called on the government to close down unnecessary pulp, saw and plywood mills to stop illicit logging activities.

"It will be impossible to stop illegal logging in Indonesia without addressing the enormous overcapacity in the wood processing sector," said Longgena Ginting, Walhi's executive director.