Minister vows to curb illegal logging

Minister vows to curb illegal logging

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban said on Friday he planned
to meet with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and
Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto to help resolve the rampant
illegal logging in Papua, which a recent report says is backed by
members of the military.

"It is organized crime and it involves many officials," he
said on Friday.

He said it would not be easy to arrest and prosecute military
or government officials involved in the crime because "they are
very tricky."

Kaban was responding to a report by the London-based
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian
environmental group Telapak, which revealed a massive smuggling
operation of illegal logs from Papua to China by an international
syndicate.

The report implicates top military and government officials,
Indonesian law enforcers and crooked entrepreneurs in Malaysia,
Hong Kong and China in the crime.

The report says about 300,000 cubic meters of merbau (Intsia)
logs from Indonesia, most of them from Papua, are being smuggled
to China each month. Merbau is one of the most valuable timber
species in Southeast Asia.

Separately, State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar
said that his office would soon conduct an environmental
assessment of Papua's forests to examine the destruction caused
by the illegal logging there.

"Papuan forests are among the few forests left in the country.
We must preserve them, therefore, we'll make an environmental
assessment soon," he said.

Kaban said that his ministry would conduct a massive offensive
on illegal logging in Papua but said that to be effective it must
be supported by other ministries and government institutions.

"We have conducted crackdowns (before) in Kalimantan, but they
have only worked for a while," he said.

Kalimantan used to be the center of illegal logging operations
in the country, but as its forests had been greatly diminished
loggers were now focussing on Papua, activists said.