Papuan police seize illegal logs in raid

Netty Dharma Somba and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura/Makassar

Papuan Police have seized thousands of cubic meters of rare Merbau timber aboard a ship after they found problems with its timber permits.

The move came as law enforcers stepped up measures against illegal logging, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration has vowed to crack down on in its first 100 days in power.

Police said on Thursday they had found irregularities in the timber permits when they intercepted the MV Fitria Perdana last week.

The permits produced by the ship captain said the volume of the timber amounted to 2,772 cubic meters. Police, however, estimated the volume at more than 5,000 cubic meters.

No arrests have yet been made. Police said they were still examining all the documents regarding the shipment of the logs, which were ordered by a company in Pasuruan, East Java.

The boat was sailing to Biak island when the police led by Sr. Comr. Dwi Marsanto intercepted it earlier last week and towed it back to Jayapura. Marsanto said the police had received a tip-off about the boat from locals.

"We flew to Biak and intercepted the vessel before it reached the port and ordered the captain to turn back to Jayapura," Marsanto said.

It took the police and forestry agency officials four days to calculate the number of the logs seized, which belonged to businessman Andi Alii in Arso, Jayapura.

Earlier this month, Papua police seized 4,000 cubic meters of illegal logs and detained a Malaysian boat KM Godri II which was carrying equipment used to fell timber in Takar, Jayapura, without a license.

In Makassar, Ministry of Forestry secretary general Wahyudi Wardoyo said his office had submitted the names of 59 people believed to be involved in illegal logging to the National Police and Attorney General's Office.

They were mostly businessmen and government officials, Wahyu said. He declined to disclose the names, saying it was the investigators who had the right to do so.

Illegal logging has caused Indonesian forests to dwindle by 2.8 million hectares a year with a total losses to the state estimated at Rp 30 trillion (US$3.3 billion) a year.

Without stern measures from the government to curb illegal logging, Wahyudi predicted the country's forests would have vanished in 20 years.

About 59 million hectares nationwide are believed to be damaged by illegal logging and land clearing, with 15 million hectares of forest completely destroyed.