Immediate rehabilitation schemes needed for forests

Immediate rehabilitation schemes needed for forests

JAKARTA (JP): Experts and environmentalists on Thursday asked
the Interdepartmental Committee on Forestry (IDCF) to work on
four schemes designed to safeguard the country's 142 million
hectares of forest, 30 million hectares of which need prompt
rehabilitation.

Led by Coordinating Minister for the Economy, the IDCF has set
itself four priorities areas to be tackled, namely forest fires,
illegal logging, forest mapping, and forest listing and
restructuring, said expert on natural resources and environmental
economics Mubariq Ahmad.

"But nothing concrete has been undertaken in respect of these
four areas, despite the fact that Indonesia is committed to
dealing with them along with the other eight commitments given on
forestry and plantations as previously scheduled by the CGI
(Consultative Group on Indonesia)," Mubariq told the media on
Thursday.

The IDCF is jointly run by the relevant ministries and
agencies, among them the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,
the National Police, non-governmental organizations and the
Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN).

Accompanying Mubariq at the media briefing held at the offices
of the Natural Resources Management Program (NRMP) were forestry
economics expert Azis Khan, anthropologist Mering Ngo and the
NRMP's spokeswoman Elshinta Suyoso-Marsden.

It is reported that the next preliminary meeting of the CGI is
slated for April 23, Mubariq said.

"And we have heard that the World Bank and those involved in
the CGI will push us on these matters so the government must act
soon to prove their seriousness in managing our forests," he
said.

The experts also criticized the government's lack of attention
and efforts in protecting indigenous people's property and
ownership rights.

"For instance, we have been abandoning the local people's hak
ulayat (traditional rights) in forestry," Azis Khan said.

"Once an area is declared a forest concession site, the locals
are driven away from their homes and they gradually lose their
sense of belonging.. and when a forest fire breaks out, the
people no longer feel that they have to try to save the forest,"
he explained.

A multitude of different customary property rights are
exercised by various ethnic groups in Indonesia and these need to
be accommodated so as to resolve conflicts in forestry and
plantation agriculture, Azis said.

While quoting data collected by Forest Watch, Mubariq further
said that there were some 4,000 conflicts concerning forests and
plantations extant nationwide.

"These cases include disputes between forest concessionaires,
concessionaires and locals, locals and the government,
concessionaires and the government, and many other permutations
besides," he explained.

On illegal logging, 70 percent of the wood obtained from such
activities ended up in the formal market, Azis said.

"This is a sad fact and it has been going on for a long time.
We have suggested that all companies involved in logging be
checked by the authorities to find out whether they have legally
obtained the wood or not.

"If not, sanctions must be imposed on them. One way to do that
would be by reducing the size of their operation so that it could
be supplied by legal logging alone," Azis said.

There are seven categories of illegal logging, including over
felling by concessionaires, logging outside the designated areas
and looting of timber.

"We hope the newly installed Minister of Forestry (Marzuki
Usman) is committed to dealing with the forestry sector's
abundant problems," Azis said. (edt)