Late audit puts forest permits in limbo

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.