No effective cure yet for illegal logging in Indonesia

Bambang Nurbianto and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Rampant illegal logging is likely to continue indefinitely as all measures and policies adopted by the government have failed to take on those involved in the business.

The obvious reason for continuing supplies of illegal logs is that there is a wide gap between official log supplies and the actual demand from wood related industries.

As long as this imbalance is not addressed properly, illegal logging will continue.

Moreover, illegal logging has benefited all layers of corrupt officials and people, ranging from military, police and government officials to politicians, businessmen and local people.

The government has in fact pursued a number of efforts to address the problem, including issuing various decrees and regulations and cooperating with foreign countries.

The government issued a presidential decree in April 2001, specifically addressing the problem of illegal logging. On the same month, the forestry minister issued a decree on moratorium of the natural forest exploitation.

These decrees were drawn as a follow up to the demand from the country's donors to address forestry problems.

On top of that, Indonesia has also signed memorandum of understandings with several countries such as China, Malaysia, Japan and Britain, in which these countries have promised not to buy illegal logs from Indonesia.

The government has also established the Inter-Departmental Committee on Forestry (IDCF) to establish joint efforts to resolve the ongoing problems, including illegal logging.

These measures, however, have failed.

And last week, just after the end of the donors' meeting, three ministers -- the transportation minister, forestry minister and industry and trade minister -- issued a joint decree on the supervision of wood transportation at the seaports.

In addition, the industry and trade minister also issued a separate decree on the export of forest products.

The effectiveness of these last two decrees remains to be seen. Judging from past experience, however, these decrees are doomed to fail, unless the core of the problems are addressed properly.

At the center of the problems is the imbalance in the official wood supply and demand and, most importantly, corruption.

The imbalance in supply and demand is so huge. A report from the Ministry of Forestry projected that official wood supply for this year would reach only 6.8 million cubic meters, while national demand could reach 71.6 million cubic meters.

This means there is a shortage of 64.8 million cubic meters, which could be met by illegal log suppliers.

Illegal logs are not only sold to meet domestic demands, but are also exported to a number of countries, including Malaysia and China.

According to Togu Manurung of Forest Watch Indonesia, illegal logging business can only flourish with the backing of corrupt officials, be they local or central government officials, politicians and military officers.

"In the case of illegal logging and log trafficking, ... law enforcers are chronically involved in KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism), security officers (police and military) enjoyed the results of a wood game," said Togu at his paper presented at the recent seminar.

A group of green non-governmental organizations made a joint statement last week, calling on the government to restructure wood-related companies by closing down inefficient companies, to reduce wood demand, and clamp down on cartels protecting illegal logging.

The NGOs -- including Forest Watch Indonesia, the Indonesian Working Group on Forest Finance, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), Indonesian NGO Forum for Indonesian Development (INFID) -- urged the government to close down inefficient forestry companies under the control of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

IBRA data shows that a total of 111 forest related companies still owe Rp 34 trillion (US$3.8 billion) to the agency. And these companies' combined wood equals 37 million cubic meters.

The next step, according to the NGOs, should be tough legal action against anyone guilty of illegal logging. They urged the government and donors to address corruption and backing issues in illegal logging. Otherwise, any measures introduced to combat illegal logging would be futile.