Logging threatens national parks, orangutan habitat
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Gistok, a famous orangutan from Tanjung Puting national park in Central Kalimantan, used to spend hours with the park visitors, playing, watching and learning. But today, Gistok is no longer to be seen; he has been missing for four months and is believed to have been killed by loggers.
The sad story is true. Massive illegal logging not only threatens people's livelihood, as about 60 million people still depend on their livelihood from living on the forests, but also puts endangered species, including orangutans like Gistok, on the brink of extinction.
Protected by both national and international laws, orangutans are facing a dramatic decline. Indonesia is home to 80 percent of the remaining orangutans in the world, but almost 80 percent of their forest habitat in this country has been destroyed within just two decades.
And as the forests dwindle, orangutans are pressed into isolated pockets, especially refuges provided by protected national parks. But now, the parks are no longer a safe haven, as they also face serious threats posed from illegal logging practices.
A new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak Indonesia, The Final Cut: Illegal Logging in Indonesia's Orangutan Parks, reveals that illegal logging is taking place in two of the country's most important parks: Tanjung Puting national park in Central Kalimantan and Gunung Leuser national park in Aceh and North Sumatra. The report, which was launched late August, was based on five site investigations conducted from July 1998 to August this year.
The two parks, known locally and internationally as a haven for their stunning biodiversity and as centers for orangutan research, are being destroyed by commercial-scale logging.
"I have witnessed scenes of appalling devastation in both of these so-called protected parks. The logging is totally out of control. The government of Indonesia must act against the timber barons directing this destruction before these vital areas and their wildlife are lost," said Dave Currey, director of EIA, an international non-governmental organization based in London and Washington DC.
The 400,000-hectare Tanjung Puting national park, recognized as a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations, forms the largest protected area of swamp forest in the Southeast Asia region. It is now rampant with illegal logging, even into the core of the park along the Sekonyer River, where the orangutan research stations are located.
The report cited the head of the park, Suherdi Redy, as saying "if the current rate of logging continues, the park will be gone in five years".
The illegal activities have been carried out in full view of local authorities, and the research cited names and companies -- from businessmen up to the loggers -- behind the massive timber theft in Tanjung Puting park.
Investigators pointed the finger at, among others, local tycoon Abdul Rasyid of the Tanjung Puting Group.
The tycoon's nephew, Sugianto, told the investigators, who posed as timber buyers, that the company offered both legal and illegal business opportunities, but suggested the second option to avoid a 30 percent export tax.
He boasted that with his influence, Abdul Rasyid could easily buy stolen ramin wood seized by the authorities. He disclosed that illegal timber exports to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan was not difficult, as customs could be "influenced", but warned that China was difficult to enter.
During a tour, the investigators also saw the delivery of unmarked ramin logs, showing that the wood was not from legal concessions.
Along the Sekonyer River, the sight of illegal log rafts and the sound of chain saws from within the park were common, while two logging camps were entrenched on either side of the proboscis monkey research center at Natai Lengkuas.
"The logging operations have been moving steadily toward the core part of the park, which contains most of the orangutan research areas ... Unless the wave of logging is halted soon, not a single part of Tanjung Puting will remain unscathed," the report stated.
The 890,000-hectare Gunung Leuser national park with its swamp forests -- Tripa, Singkil and Kluet -- home to unique orangutans that have been regularly observed using tools made of branches to extricate food from holes in trees and bee's nests, behavior never before seen in orangutans from other areas -- is also threatened by illegal logging.
Local timber barons were reportedly encouraging local communities to break the law by providing loggers with chain saws and loans for food and supplies.
In the Kluet swamp -- site of the Suaq Balimbing research center -- illegal logging did not begin to spread until March this year. By July, it was estimated that about 100 loggers, based at 24 logging camps and using a system of 20 rails to pull the logs out, were operating within the study area.
"Two of the three most important food trees for orangutans in the area have been heavily logged," the report said, airing concern that in the next fruiting season the orangutans may face starvation.
Researchers also raised fears that illegal logging would destroy unique behavioral traits, such as tool use observed in the orangutan population.
Action
Following the report, EIA and Telapak Indonesia called for an immediate halt to logging practices in national parks. They urged the closing down of illegal sawmills, auditing licensed sawmills in the vicinity of the parks, and demanded immediate investigations and prosecution of sawmill owners proven to have acted illegally.
The groups also called major international donors to support actions to stop illegal logging, and demanded a thorough investigation, prosecution and replacement of corrupt officials, including police, military and forestry officials.
The groups' campaign to save the parks does not stop here.
A week after the report's launch, its representatives met Central Kalimantan Governor Rapiudin Hamarun in Palangkaraya. At the meeting, the governor acknowledged the destruction of the park was now an international issue and agreed to save the park.
The response was considered "encouraging" by Telapak's executive director A. Ruwindrijarto.
"We support any moves to find legitimate work for the local communities. But he is seeking to reward the wealthy timber barons by providing logging concessions and an IPK (clear cutting license) to them to entice them out of the park ... Clearly this is outrageous and totally unacceptable. We have asked him to get the provincial level chief attorney to investigate the kingpin of the operations, Abdul Rasyid, and close down his operations," he said after the meeting.
They also held meetings with the World Bank, the European Union, various national aid agencies and leading Indonesian political parties. The campaign also receives support from NGOs worldwide, and it will be taken to Washington DC and Europe to crank up the pressure and push for better forest legislation, which will enable the participation of local communities and benefit Indonesian forests.
The forestry bill, which was expected to be passed into law by the House of Representatives sometime this week, is feared by activists if enacted to condone exploitation of natural resources.
"There's one thing politicians, aid agencies and timber barons can be sure of," said Dave Currey, "this campaign continues until we win. It focuses on fundamental forestry issues in Indonesia, and if the government is unable to protect two national parks, what hope do the rest of Indonesia's forests, the people dependent on them and the wildlife have?"