Leuser Park to disappear in less than 10 years

Leuser Park to disappear in less than 10 years

This is the second and last article in a series on the recent
Bahorok flash flood presented by The Jakarta Post's Apriadi
Gunawan, Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Ridwan Max Sijabat.

The thought that one day Gunung Leuser National Park will no
longer exist is staggering but if nothing is done to prevent a
tragedy of the scale of the Nov. 2 Bahorok flash flood, the park
will vanish in less than 10 years, experts say.

If this is true, one day the younger generation will only
learn about the largest protected park in the world from school
textbooks.

The Love Leuser Society (MPL) predicts the 950,000-hectare
tropical rain forest, home to countless flora and fauna species,
will vanish by 2010 as no concrete actions have been taken to
salvage the Leuser ecosystem.

And, consequently, villagers living in the park's surroundings
in the bordering provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra can
anticipate other Bahorok tragedies after the recent one that
killed more than 140 people and injured more than 200 others.

The Leuser ecosystem territory (KEL) that is the national park
plus its buffer zone of forested areas is as vast as the
Netherlads or three times of Singapore size. Stretching from West
Sumatra through North Sumatra rain forests, the Leuser ecosystem
that covers 15 regencies has shrunk to 1,666,673 hectares in 2002
from 2,639,871 hectares in the 1930s.

Deforestation has increased from 150 hectares in 1980 to
349,636 ha in 1985, 921,987 ha in 2000 and 973,198 ha in 2002.

Today, it has shrunk further yet as the government has granted
tens of thousands of hectares as forest concession areas to
several timber tycoons. Others were transformed into oil palm and
rubber plantations.

"The disappearance of the national park is only a matter of
time," environmental activist Marojahan said in Medan, North
Sumatra, recently.

The ongoing illegal logging, he said, has devastated a bigger
part of the Leuser ecosystem territory (KEL).

Marojahan said quoting MPL data, illegal logging activities
had destroyed an average 40,000 hectares a year at the park since
1998. The park was declared a protected nature reserve in 1980.

"Leuser deforestation will intensify with the ongoing Ladia
Galaska road project and the presence of settlement areas inside
the park," he said.

The 500-kilometer Ladia Galaska road network project, 150
kilometers of which will pass through the national park, has
devastated the virgin forest, its rich biodiversity and the
habitats of rare mammals such as elephants, Sumatran tigers,
rhinoceros and orangutans.

The European Union-backed Leuser Management Unit (UML) has
long sounded an alarm about illegal logging in the park. No
action has been taken to curb it so far.

A survey conducted by UML in 2000 shows that deforestation had
encroached upon 20 percent of the national park by 2000.

It estimates that the road project construction would double
the size of destroyed forest to 40 percent in KEL by 2010. This
would put the country at risk of losing Rp 168.7 trillion
(US$19.8 billion) in predicted natural disasters caused by the
forest destruction, without including the possible loss of lives.

Lamert Setyadi, chief of the Natural Resources Conservation
Agency (BKSDA) in the national park, confirmed recently that
illegal logging has continued despite the devastating flood.

He said it was difficult to curb the forest looting because it
was conducted by villagers who were backed by businessmen and
security personnel.

According to data at Natural Resources Protection (PSDA)
Watch, forest looting and illegal logging at the national park
reached 40,000 hectares from 1999 through 2003. It costs the park
more than 100,000 cubic meters of logs and the government Rp 105
billion in unpaid taxes or Rp 6 trillion in total in view of the
losses incurred by the environment.

Activists say their grievances have not been addressed. They
have long called on the government to enforce Law No. 14/1999 on
forestry and Presidential Decree No. 33/1998 on the protection of
Leuser Park.

The forestry law regulates the protection of national parks
and protected rain forests across the country while according to
the presidential decree, Gunung Leuser, which was declared a
national park in 1980, was extended to embrace the Leuser
Ecosystem in efforts to preserve it for future generations.

A recent call for a moratorium on illegal logging by President
Megawati Soekarnoputri has been ignored.

Suripto of PSDA Watch attributed the forest destruction in the
park to a well-organized illegal logging syndicate in an article
he wrote in Republika's Nov. 16 edition. He said the syndicate
involved timber tycoons, military and police personnel,
councillors and recruited loggers.

The syndicate with (timber tycoons) Acan and Aweng as its
masterminds has been supported by local and international
players, he said.

Operating in a cell system, he said, financiers recruited
locals to fell big trees. Those involved in the syndicate are
officers from the North Sumatra Forestry office, the tax and
excise office, Army, Navy, print media, the local (Langkat)
administration, prosecutors, judges and politicians, said Suripto
who is a former secretary-general of the forestry ministry.

The two alleged timber tycoons are untouchable, he said, they
can move freely although they are included in the local police'
wanted list.

Motorized carts carrying timber along the highway connecting
West and North Sumatra is a daily sight. The timber comes from
sawmills near the national park and is sent to the North Sumatra
towns of Pangkalan Brandan, Langkat, Binjai and Stabat.

The timber is sold to businessmen who will export it to
Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and even Europe through
Belawan and Tanjungbalai seaports.

"The amount of money loggers, government and military
officials receive from illegal logging is just peanuts compared
to the businessmen's huge profit," said an environmental activist
from the Love Leuser Community in Medan.

Experts estimate the profit gained by illegal logging
activities amounts to tens of millions of dollars a year.