'Leuser National Park has lost 20% of its trees to logging'

'Leuser National Park has lost 20% of its trees to logging'

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Approximately 20 percent of the forest in Mount Leuser
National Park in North Sumatra had been illegally felled by the
year 2000, local officials have announced, adding foreign
investors might have been involved.

About 170,000 hectares of forests, or around 20 percent of the
national park's total forest area of 842,000 hectares, vanished
by 2000, said Jamal M. Gawi, the forest coordinator of the Leuser
Management Unit on Thursday.

Illegal loggers raided the forest's South and southeastern
section, which is home to much of the park's abundant flora and
fauna, he said.

The disappearance of such a huge forest area, he said, had led
to a drop in the number of orangutans in the park, which in 1998
stood at 6,000 half the number recorded in 1992.

Jamal said that a two-year investigation by his unit pointed
to the involvement of a South Korean investor in the illegal
logging operation.

The investor, whom Jamal called Mr. Kim, financed and planned
the illegal logging activities.

Local councillor Zaidan BS also supported Jamal's claim that
foreign investors were involved in the illegal trade.

Zaidan suspected an American investor from Malaysia had been
organizing illegal logging operations, though he declined to
reveal any details.

According to him, it had been difficult to infiltrate illegal
logging groups.

The head of the North Sumatra Ministry of Forestry office,
Darori, said he had never heard about foreign investors
participating in illegal logging, unlike their local peers.

He said his office had done all it could to protect the
national park's trees: "But we lack police personnel to guard the
entire area".

Jamal said it was difficult to curb illegal logging because it
sometimes involves local officials and security personnel.

"Looking at the police's inaction we may suspect their
involvement," Jamal said.

He said that illegal timber is usually transported to Medan
for documentation clearance so they can pass off as legal
exports.

Jamal cited two locations in Medan where the paper clearance
took place: at Jl. Binjai and Jl. Tanjung Sari. Once cleared, the
logs are shipped abroad through the Belawan and Tanjung Balai
harbors.

Zaidan called the export route through Tanjung Balai the
illegal loggers' "silk road", named after the famous trade route
linking Europe with China.

"Every month about 5,000 tons of illegal timber is shipped out
of Indonesia along 'the silk road'," he said, adding the state
must be suffering billions of rupiah in lost tax revenues as a
result.

Illegal logging also threatens the local timber industry and
the livelihood of some 70,000 workers there, he added.