Illegal logging remains widespread in Lampung
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung
Two drivers calmly gave themselves up to the police when they were apprehended in Bandarlampung recently with trucks laden with meranti and kruing timber.
They had their reasons to be calm. Held only for one night as witnesses, they were released the next morning with the trucks, which continued their trips to the port of Bakauheni for the ferry crossing to Java.
Detectives from the special crimes unit of the Lampung Police Headquarters released them after the Forest Products Authorization and Certification Agency stated that the documents the drivers produced were valid.
According to squad chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sufyan Syarif the trucks were carrying a total of 39.2 cubic meters of meranti and kruing wood.
The certification agency's officers, Jaya Atmaja and Ade Sutadi, confirmed that the drivers had produced complete documents, meaning there was no reason to arrest them.
The truck drivers' release did not surprise the local director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), Mukri Priyatna, either.
Mukri questioned why the authorities were relying only on documents to certify the logs. It was impossible to get meranti and kruing woods in the province unless they came from trees the South Bukit Barisan National Park, the only place where such species grew, he said.
"The authorities shouldn't have only focussed on the documents; they should also discover whether the timber was illegally taken from the park," Mukri said.
In Bandarlampung, it is commonplace to see dozens of trucks carrying cut timber along the trans-Sumatra Highway.
The moment the drivers enter Bandarlampung at the Rajabasa area near the bus terminal, they stop their vehicles at a post, where they show their cargo documents before proceeding to the Bakauheni Port. If official or police at the post question the logs legitimacy the drivers immediately hand over money to them.
"About Rp 20,000 (US$2) is enough to hush them up. They'll let us continue our trip," Muhadi, a driver who claimed he often transported timber from the national park, said.
According to Walhi's data, tens of millions of cubic meters of illegally sawn timber are channeled out of Lampung and other provinces in Sumatra to Java through the Merak Port in Banten every month onboard large trucks. The drivers generally hold all the legitimate documents, including the Processed Timber (SAKO), Log Transportation (SAKB) and Forest Products Validation (SKSHH) certificates.
Mukri said the illegal trade of meranti, kruing and tenam woods from the national park was worth trillions of rupiah a month.
"The price of meranti is quite high, ranging from Rp 750,000 to Rp 1 million per cubic meter. If an average of 15 million cubic meters of meranti are transported from Sumatra to Java each month, the state will suffer a loss of around Rp 15 trillion," Mukri said.
It wasn't difficult to stop illegal logging, he said. All trucks coming out of the national park should be stopped and the authorities could close down sawmills operating in Krui, Lemong and Bengkunat in West Lampung.
"There are dozens of illegal sawmills operating openly in West Lampung," Mukri said.
The national park stretches form West Lampung to Kaur regency in Bengkulu province, about 360,000 square hectares.
Apart from illegal logging, poaching also poses a serious threat to the remaining wildlife species in the park.
Park head Tamen Sitorus blamed the widespread illegal logging and poaching in the park on the authority's limited manpower, saying the park had "only" 80 forest rangers to protect the vast area.
This evidence of continued illegal logging comes after significant sums of money, much of it from international donors, has been pledged to aid conservation programs in the area.
The park's management signed a memorandum of understanding in 2004 to work with 10 non-governmental organizations in Lampung, grouped in the Conservation and Action Network Program Indonesia, to preserve the park's ecosystem and biological diversity, including in the park's buffer areas of 1.35 million hectares.
The short-term joint program, which will last for two-and-a- half years, is funded by the international Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund CEPF) at US$1.8 million.
The program includes moves to reduce the rate of illegal logging up to 80 percent in forested areas in the park and 50 percent in its surrounding areas; to restore at least 50 percent of damaged forested area and 50 percent of the main protected area around the park; as well as to raise the population of key wildlife species in the park.