Most Indorayon land not suitable for pine trees

Most Indorayon land not suitable for pine trees

JAKARTA (JP): PT Inti Indorayon Utama told the House of
Representatives (DPR) yesterday that of the 269,060-hectare
timber estate concession it was granted in 1992, only 110,000
hectares is suitable for pine tree plantations.

Indorayon's Director Semion Tarigan told a hearing with the
House that the 110,000-hectares were assessed as the most
suitable for the development of timber estates to supply the
company's pulp and rayon mills.

"We've conducted modern research on the most productive pine
species that are suitable for the land," Tarigan said.

Indorayon got its first 86,000-hectare concession in 1984 and
the second 269,060-hectares in 1992, both located near Lake Toba
in North Sumatra.

The firm's pulp plant has an annual capacity of 220,000 tons
and its rayon plant 65,000 tons. Both plants involved a total
investment of Rp 870 billion (US$402 million).

"We're going to use the rest of our concession as a buffer
zone and nature area," another Indorayon executive, Hasudungan
Simamora said.

Simamora said that Indorayon had planted 54 million pine trees
on 32,500 hectares since 1987.

"We cut one and plant thirteen," Tarigan claimed.

Indorayon, listed on the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges,
has been involved in a prolonged dispute with local communities
over environmental issues.

Auditing

Last March the government appointed the U.S.-based Labat-
Andersen consulting firm to audit Indorayon to see whether the
management had applied financially-and-environmentally sound
administration.

The auditing, the first done by an international company for
an industrial plant in Indonesia, is still underway.

The president of Indorayon, Polar Yanto Tanoto, said that the
management had tried its best to implement sustainable forest
management.

Yanto said that prior to the establishment of Indorayon, most
of the concessions were barren hills which often suffered bush
fires.

The hearing, however, turned into a hot debate yesterday as
more than a dozen legislators bombarded the visiting delegation
with questions.

Legislator Robianto Koestomo said that he doubted the written
report of Indorayon, adding that local people would not be
offended if the company did nothing wrong.

The two Indorayon concessions are located in North Tapanuli,
Simalungun, South Tapanuli and Karo regencies in North
Sumatra.(09)