More illegal logs seized in Sumatra, Sulawesi waters
More illegal logs seized in Sumatra, Sulawesi waters
Fadli and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Tanjung Karimun/Makassar
Government officials have again confiscated thousands of
undocumented logs from several ships in the waters off Sumatra
and Sulawesi.
Lt. Col. Bambang Wahyudi, the chief of Tanjung Balai Karimun
Naval Base, announced on Wednesday that Navy personnel had
apprehended the Sandi Dewa Samudera boat carrying over 2,500 logs
of meranti early on Tuesday morning. The boat was arrested, while
sailing in the waters off Tanjung Balai Karimun regency in Riau
Islands province.
During the arrest, the boat captain earlier claimed that the
logs, which were said to be on the way to Jambi province, were
documented logs. But, after a thorough check, it was discovered
that the types, the weight and the volume of the logs were
different from what was stated in the ship's manifest, explained
Bambang. He added that nine boat crew members were arrested after
the irregularities came to light.
In the past week alone, the Navy has apprehended four boats
carrying thousands of undocumented logs.
Separately, a similar seizure occurred on Tuesday night by
officials from the South Sulawesi provincial forestry agency. The
forestry agents were holding several crew members for questioning
after the Padaidi Putra ship was found carrying 150 undocumented
logs while docked in Paotera port in Makassar. Khairuddin, an
official with the forestry office, said that the office was still
investigating the case.
The series of arrests of crew members and their ships carrying
illegal logs was intensified nationwide after two environmental
groups published a high-profile report in February, which
documented the smuggling of about 300,000 cubic meters of timber
a month from Indonesia, mostly Papua province, to China.
The report, entitled The Last Frontier, revealed the largest
timber smuggling case of a single species ever discovered, an
operation estimated to be worth more than US$900 million a year.
The exhaustive paper, prepared by the London-based
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian
counterpart, the environmental group Telapak, alleged that the
operation was supported and managed by high-ranking Indonesian
Military officers, government officials, businessmen and the
police.
Soon after the report's release, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono called for a nationwide, integrated crackdown against
the illegal loggers. The crackdown has resulted in the arrest of
at least 105 illegal logging suspects in Papua alone, some of
them police and military officers.