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.