Megawati blames 'greedy' neighbors for illegal logging

Megawati blames 'greedy' neighbors for illegal logging

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu

It was difficult to fight the widespread illegal logging across
Indonesia and neighboring countries were to blame for encouraging
the problem, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has said.

Those countries continued to demand Indonesian forest products
and did not care whether they came from, Megawati told a
gathering of local rattan and marble businesspeople in Karang
Song village, Indramayu, West Java, on Saturday.

"We are not blind to the fact that neighboring states have
greedy eyes on our forests and are using all means, including
illegal ones, to get their products," she said.

Megawati was responding to a complaint from the businesspeople
over their difficulties in getting raw materials because of
widespread illegal logging.

However, she stopped short of naming the neighboring countries
in question. Last February, Indonesian Minister of Forestry
Mohamad Prakosa called for a worldwide boycott of wood products
from Malaysia, which he accused of continuing to buy illegal logs
from Indonesia.

Malaysia was the biggest buyer of Indonesia's illegal logs and
had refused to act to solve the problem, Prakosa said.

Companies in that country had used illegal ramin hardwood from
Indonesia for furniture production, he said.

Megawati said she had ordered the National Police to cooperate
with the Indonesian Military (TNI) to crack down on illegal
loggers.

This cooperation would hopefully help decrease the amount of
smuggling of Indonesian hardwood to other countries. The two
groups would work in coordination with the Ministry of Industry
and Trade, Megawati said.

However, Megawati could be asking the perpetrators to help
solve the crime. Many critics of her environmental policy have
alleged officers from the Military, police and state officials
were involved in the illegal logging.

Megawati called for a complete moratorium on Indonesian
forest products. Logging had seriously damaged the country's
forests and they needed to be restored, she said.

Stopping illegal logging in Indonesian forests was not an easy
task due to their huge size and a strong security force was
needed to protect them.

Illegal loggers were also becoming increasingly better at
evading security personnel, she said.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and several U.S.
non-governmental organizations have called on the U.S. to impose
trade sanctions against Malaysia over the smuggling of ramin
hardwood, an endangered species found only in Indonesia and
Malaysia.

"Sanctions are always a last resort, but we want all trade in
ramin to be suspended for the time being until the Malaysian
government has shown concrete evidence that they have cracked
down on the illegal trade," EIA president Allan Thornton said in
February.

However, Malaysian officials have denied the accusations,
saying they had taken the necessary measures to curb the
smuggling of illegal timber from Indonesia.

Malaysia's primary industry deputy secretary-general Suboh
Mohamad Yassin has said illegal logging was not an issue for his
country, but stressed that onus was on Indonesia to upgrade its
laws.