Illegal logging surged due to corruption: Report

Illegal logging surged due to corruption: Report

Associated Press
Jakarta

Corruption in Indonesia's police and military has contributed to
a surge in illegal logging that has destroyed much of the
country's forests, an environmental group said in a report
released Tuesday.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
called on foreign donors to consider tying future assistance to
proof that the Indonesian government is cracking down on illegal
logging. It urged President Megawati Soekarnoputri to take the
lead in fighting corruption.

"The president must give leadership and support to those in
her government who are trying to stop illegal logging by
proactively tackling the blatant corruption that blocks all
progress," said Dave Currey, director of the EIA.

Until now, illegal logging has gone mostly unchecked in
Indonesia despite repeated assertions by foreign donors and
environmental groups that the country's virgin rain forest could
be destroyed by 2005. Environmental groups estimate that as much
as 70 percent of the logs exported are illegal, including an
increasing number from the country's national parks, and that 70
percent of the country's forests has been destroyed.

The report, titled "Above The Law: Corruption, Collusion,
Nepotism and the Fate of Indonesia's Forests," comes a week
before a key meeting of international donors known as the
Consultative Group on Indonesia that will discuss future
assistance. Among the topics on its agenda is the management of
the country's remaining forests.

The report alleges that the military - through its private
businesses - has logged illegally and operated saw mills to pay
the daily expenses of troops. The military has long denied being
involved in illegal logging.

It says the police and the courts have failed to prosecute
illegal loggers, even when other Indonesian agencies, including
the Ministry of Forestry and navy, intervened.

Indonesia has taken steps to curb illegal logging, including
an export ban announced last year and discussions of swaps of
outstanding national debt for money that would go to
environmental programs.

But most of the efforts have been derailed by corruption, the
report says.

It says investigators from the EIA - an independent group
which investigates environmental crime - have complained since
1999 about illegal logging in Tanjung Puting National Park, but
nothing significant has been done beyond promises from local
government officials.

"Loggers have always returned to the park and destruction
continues today," the report says. "Vast tracts of the park have
been affected and a commercial infrastructure of log rails,
logging camps and log ponds have been developed across the park.
The situation is worse today than it was in 1999."