Illegal logging costs $609m, environmental destruction

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.