No laws, cops can stop loggers in Kerinci Seblat

No laws, cops can stop loggers in Kerinci Seblat

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post,
Kerinci, Jambi

Giant, tall trees welcome you along the road heading to the
quiet Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP). Once in a while, you
will notice monkeys playing on the roadside.

Traveling to the park, which has been opened since 1982, is an
impressive adventure. That is the first image most people have
for the beautiful scenery of the seemingly-untouched forests.

Questions, however, will quickly emerge due to the presence of
trucks carrying logs or timber along the narrow asphalt road
which connects the area and neighboring Jambi province, as well
as scattered timber along the rivers in the area.

Visitors would probably understand the presence of those
trucks were they in a forest concession area, instead of a
national park.

National parks are protected areas managed mainly for
ecosystem protection and recreation, where nobody could enter
without permit.

If a national park is supposedly a protected area, how come
that the KSNP looks like a concession forest for logging and
timber businesses?

The answer is easy: illegal logging.

KSNP spokesman Rudijanta Tjahyo confirmed that widespread
illegal logging occurs in the national park, which is now an
ASEAN Heritage Site.

"Illegal logging here is unbeatable," he told The Jakarta Post
recently.

According to data, the annual deforestation rate at the KSNP
stands at 1.26 percent per year. With a total area of 1.48
million hectares, or one third the area of Belgium, KNSP losses
some 18,600 hectares each year. To date, some 30 percent of the
total forest area in the park has disappeared.

The TNKS is known for its rich biodiversity. The park is a
home to various rare species, including the world's tallest
flower, Amorphophallus titanum, and the world's largest flower,
Rafflesia arnoldi. It has more than 4000 species of plant, or
1/60 of the total plant species in the world, more than 350
species of apes and 144 species of mammals, or 1/30 of the total
species of apes and mammals in the world respectively.

Rudijanta revealed that the TNKS has attempted to curb illegal
logging by deploying forest rangers.

Unfortunately, there are only unequipped 105 rangers to guard
1.48 million hectares of the national park located in mountainous
areas.

No need to ask the result.

Claiming to be inhabitants of the KSNP, illegal loggers have
no fear to attack the rangers everytime they conduct operations
against illegal logging.

Arson attacks on the rangers' vehicles or assault against the
rangers commonly occur here, forcing the park management to ask
assistance from local police and military to deal with the
illegal loggers.

Still, there has been no significant progress although there
were 22 people convicted to between four and 18 months for
illegal logging last year.

The sentences were far below the maximum sentence provided in
Law No. 5/1990 on conservation of natural resources and its
ecosystem. The law stipulates that anyone involved in illegal
activities in national parks or protected areas could face a
maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a Rp 200 million fine.

All of the convicts were local people who were caught red-
handed sawing trees inside the KSNP.

Undoubtly, there has yet any investigation about where or to
whom the logs and timber were transported and sold despite the
fact that everyday dozens of trucks carry hundreds of cubic
meters of logs and timber around the KSNP. Not to mention the
large amount of timber transported through rivers.

The timber is produced by several illegal sawmills erected
inside or around the KSNP area. Some of the sawmills are equipped
with expensive, modern machines such as chain saws that local
people can barely afford.

The logs and timber are reportedly sold to timber companies
around the area and other areas as far away as Riau, which houses
many pulp and paper companies.

According to a recent report from the Kerinci Seblat
Integrated Conservation and Development Project (KS-ICDP) --
funded by the government, the World Bank and the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) -- the widespread illegal logging
involves cukongs and oknums.

Cukongs are financial backers, and in this case refers to
people who order and buy logs or timber from illegal loggers.
They usually own sawmills and timber companies. Oknum is a term
applied to any delinquent government official/employee or
military/police officer. In this case it refers to government
officers or law enforcers who back illegal logging activities.

The report further says that "the situation was exacerbated by
the proliferation of illegal and legal sawmills coupled with a
breakdown in law enforcement and support for the park from local
authorities (local government, police, prosecutors)".

It has become public secret that illegal logging remains
rampant due to the cooperation between the cukongs and the
oknums.

Many times, when the KSNP forest rangers seize trucks or
illegal timber, oknums -- be they law enforcers, legislatures,
administration officers or even the forest rangers themselves --
would ask the park management to release the evidences.

A high-ranking official of the forestry agency had even
manipulated data in the issuance of a forest exploitation permit
for a company. But the case remains unsolved.

Rudijanta claimed that deforestation in the KSNP became worse
following the downfall of the New Order regime, which exploited
forests and mining as its major money machine.

At the time, only the cronies and family of former president
Soeharto could exploit the forests. Being sidelined for over
three decades in forest exploitations, both local people and
local administrations are now eager to salvage what is left in
the forest.

When the autonomy era began, the threats to forest
preservation escalated as both the central government and local
administrations are allowed to issue forest exploitation permits,
thanks to the country's inconsistent regulations on forests.

In order to boost local revenues, local administrations often
issue the permits despite the fact that production forests in
their authorities were exhausted. As a result, the neighboring
KSNP become the target of exploitation.

Located in four provinces -- Jambi, Bengkulu, South Sumatra
and West Sumatra-- and within nine regencies, the KSNP faces more
rapid deforestations.

Rampant deforestation in the KSNP, which functions as water
catchment area in some part of Sumatra, indeed, will not only
endanger biodiversity but also the island itself due to possible
flooding, droughts and landslides.

People may expect it to happen in the near future, as the
World Bank has predicted that forests in Sumatra will disappear
by 2005 due to uncontrolled deforestation.

It is not totally impossible that the next generation will
encounter deserts in the former area of the KSNP if the alarming
speed of deforestation continues.

Another question emerges.

What will happen to other protected forests and parks in the
country if the KSNP, which is under international spotlight and
supported by millions of dollars of financial assistance, cannot
stop illegal logging?