Malaysian timber barons involved in Papua forest looting

Malaysian timber barons involved in Papua forest looting

Ridwan Max Sijabat
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Ecologists have called on president-in-waiting Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono to take emergency measures to terminate rapid
deforestation in the country's easternmost province of Papua.

John Handol M.L., spokesman for an alliance of local
environmental groups, said here on Thursday that many Malaysian
timber barons, who corrupted senior government and security
officials to plunder the tropical forest in the province, have
smuggled around 200,000 cubic meters of illegal logs from the
province to China and India through the Southern Philippines.

"The smuggling has gone on for nine months. It has involved
local loggers and been backed by politicians from Jakarta and
security officials from the Navy and the National Police," Handol
said in a press briefing to announce the results of their
investigation into the smuggling of illegal logs from Papua.

Handol, also coordinator of the environmental group Aliansi,
said the timber mafia had used this year's elections to shield
illegal logging activities from the public's attention.

He explained that the modus operandi of the illegal loggers
was simple, as they were paid cash by timber barons to log virgin
forest under "the custody" of security personnel from the local
Navy command and local police units.

"We have the names of several Malaysian timber barons, known
to be powerful and untouchable in Papua as they have paid local
security authorities to guard them and their business," he said,
citing those names as William Wong, Budi, Patrick Cong, A Hong
and Joe Sorong.

According to the press statement, the illegal logs were
shipped with fake documents from Papua New Guinea (GNP) through
Mali in the Southern Philippines to China and Indonesia, two
major countries believed to have supplied illegal logs from
Indonesia.

"The fake documents are used to deceive port authorities,
Indonesia's patrol ships and the police, they state that the logs
were taken from PNG forests," he said.

The timber barons have used many Thai flag-carrier vessels MV
Natcha Naree, MV Ranbow Spring, KM Bulu Kumba, MV Porto Cayo, MV
Mexico and KM Gunung Damai to transport the illegal logs and
their crew who are mostly Chinese and Thais.

Handol said much of Papua's forest would be gone within a few
years, unless the illegal logging activities were halted.

The ecologists said the timber barons had emerged as a
powerful and dangerous threat as they had begun to log the
forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

At a meeting to present videos and photographs, which they say
points to a "timber mafia" backed by security forces and top
politicians, the ecologists called on the next government to halt
illegal logging.

"The national parks have been invaded by loggers paid by big
timbers barons, this is organized crime," Dave Currey of the
British Environmental Investigation Agency, told AFP before the
presentation of the new evidence here on Wednesday.

The agency, working with a coalition of local groups, hopes
the photos and films depicting the destruction of forests across
the archipelago will help spur the country's next president to
take action.

Indonesia is estimated to be losing nearly two million
hectares of forests annually -- an area half the size of
Switzerland -- up from one million hectares in the 1980s.
Forested area decreased from 162 million hectares in 1950 to only
98 million hectares in 2000.

Despite the new evidence, Indonesia's environmental groups say
they are powerless to stop one of the world's largest expanses of
forest, after Brazil, from vanishing, because of the level of
corruption.

"The rate of deforestation keeps increasing. We are running
out of time," said Togu Manurung of Forest Watch Indonesia.
"There is no proper law enforcement because of corruption. It is
the core problem."

Manurung said the Army and police were in many cases involved
in tree felling in certain areas, adding that up to 80 percent of
Indonesian wood sold in Western countries came from illegal
trade.

Arbi Valentinus of environmental group Telepak said several
senior government figures were widely known to be involved in the
illegal logging but were untouchable by law enforcers.

"The biggest barons walk free. They maintain and build
corruption, from the regions up to the central government,"
Valentinus said.