Joint team leaves for Papua to combat illegal logging
Joint team leaves for Papua to combat illegal logging
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
A special team assigned to halt the widespread illegal logging in
Papua has been dispatched to the province "to carry out field
operations," National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on
Friday.
He said the 1,500-member team, which consists of officials
from the police, military, Attorney General's Office, Ministry of
Forestry, immigration office, and Customs would conduct a two-
month field operation under the name "Hutan Lestari", or
sustainable forest.
Officials from the local administration would also be assigned
to the team.
The government has been under international pressure to curb
the rampant illegal logging activities in the country. The latest
controversy follows a report from the London-based Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA) and local non-governmental
organization Telapak. The report details massive smuggling of
illegal logs from Papua to China by international syndicates,
which it says also involves members of the police, military and
government officials.
The report says that some 300,000 cubic meters of timber a
month is regularly being smuggled out of Papua; the largest-ever
case of single-species smuggling.
The report entitled "The Last Frontier" identified Sorong,
Manokwari, Fak Fak, Nabire and Serui regencies as the main
illegal logging hot spots, from which the logs are shipped to the
Chinese port of Zhangjiagang.
Da'i said that the police has requested the Navy dispatch its
patrol ships to Papua waters to stop the smugglers from shipping
out the illegal timber.
The government has allocated Rp 12 billion (US$1.3 million)
out of the state budget to fund the team's operations, he said.
"Since there are many departments involved in this operation
we will coordinate to guard the Papuan forest so that nobody can
bring out the logs," Da'i said.
Fraud squad detectives would also launch investigations into
the local bank accounts of the people suspected to be financing
the illegal logging activities, he said.
The Ministry of Forestry and the AGO are targeting 19 people
who are allegedly providing financing for the illegal logging and
smuggling activities in Papua.
"We will work together with the Financial Transaction and
Report Analysis Center (PPATK) to probe into the bank accounts of
the suspects and also check the possibility of money laundering
in this case," Da'i said.
The image of police being slow or unwilling to investigate
illegal logging, belied the statistics, which showed a different
picture, Da'i said.
Last year, police investigated about 880 cases of illegal
logging and 999 suspects were arrested, he claimed.
Police also confiscated around 287,800 cubic meters of
Indonesian timber worth around Rp 344 billion, he said.