Late audit puts forest permits in limbo

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As many as 116 logging concessionaires, whose licenses have expired, has been in limbo for months because the government has delayed approval of the extension of their licenses.

Lumisu Mangiwa, director of forest exploitation planning at the Ministry of Forestry, said the independent consultants assigned to audit the concessionaires had not started their work yet because the ministry was waiting for the approval of funds.

The Ministry of Finance has promised to finance the audit but it has not been able to release the funds for the auditors because the Ministry of Finance had not yet approved the disbursement for unclear reasons.

"The auditors should have started their work in September this year, but they could not do that due the financial problem," Lumisu said.

Lumisu added that the ministry had asked the logging concessionaires to shut down their operations temporarily while waiting for their new license approval.

The 11,000 workers employed in the 116 concessionaires face job uncertainty, he said.

The Ministry of Forestry has selected 12 consultants, dubbed by the ministry as the "independent verification institute" (LPI), to help the ministry determine whether logging concessionaires have applied sustainable principles in their operations.

Based on the results of the assessment by the forest auditors, the government will decide whether to revoke the concessionaires' licenses or allow them to continue their operations.

The Ministry of Forestry has proposed some Rp 148 billion (US$16.4 million) in funds for the auditors.

Each auditor will be paid Rp 300 million in fees and operating costs for auditing one concessionaire. One auditor is expected to audit 10 concessionaires a month.

There are 412 logging companies operating on around 37 million hectares of forest area. The total area is roughly triple the size of Java Island.

More than two million hectares of forest suffer destruction every year, and if the trend continues, as the World Bank warns, Indonesia could lose the lowland forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan in 2005 and 2010 respectively.