Perhutani takes over Yamaker's forest areas

Perhutani takes over Yamaker's forest areas

JAKARTA (JP): Perum Perhutani president A. Fattah DS confirmed
on Wednesday the government appointed the state forestry company
to take over the management of over one million hectares of
forests formerly owned by PT Yayasan Maju Kerja (Yamaker).

Fattah said Perhutani would allocate some Rp 78 billion (about
US$9l75 million) in initial investment to carry out logging
operations in the forests along the Indonesia-Malaysia border in
Kalimantan.

"We are ready to manage the forest areas. We have prepared Rp
78 billion in funds for initial operations," he said.

Fattah said the government's new regulation limiting the
ownership of forest concession areas would not pose a problem for
Perhutani in taking over the forests.

He said that unlike other state forestry companies, Perhutani
carried the government's special mission of empowering people
living near the forests and promoting reforestation programs and
was therefore exempt from the ruling.

Fattah said other state timber companies, including PT
Inhutani I to V, should, like private timber companies, abide by
the regulation which limits the ownership of forest concessions
to a maximum of 100,000 hectares in a province.

Earlier this year, President B.J. Habibie revoked Presidential
Decree No. 44/1994, which gave logging rights in the "security
belt" along the border of East and West Kalimantan to Yamaker,
owned by a foundation linked to the Ministry of Defense and
Security.

The company's logging contracts, which cover over 834,500
hectares of forests in West Kalimantan and 224,000 hectares in
East Kalimantan, were revoked earlier this month.

Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution said
Yamaker's logging rights were revoked because the company did not
take its responsibility to develop the forests seriously, and
allowed its concession areas to be degraded through rampant
timber theft.

He also said Yamaker allegedly cooperated with several
Malaysian companies to smuggle logs from Indonesian forests in
Kalimantan to neighboring Malaysia.

The ministry's investigations, he said, indicated that more
than 100,000 cubic meters of logs were smuggled out of Kalimantan
into Malaysia through Yamaker's logging area from July to October
1998, causing a loss of Rp 134 billion to the country.

Muslimin said his office's investigation indicated the company
smuggled between 100 cubic meters and 300 cubic meters of logs
per day from the company's concession areas since it began
operating in 1992.

Muslimin said the contract originally was given to Yamaker
because the forests were considered a security zone, so "it was
thought better if the area was managed by an Armed Forces-linked
timber firm".

"Our decision shows that the government will not hesitate to
revoke licenses or contracts of disobedient companies no matter
who owns the companies," Muslimin said.

Yamaker's executives were not available for comment on
Wednesday.

Fattah said most of Yamaker's concession areas in West
Kalimantan had been exploited, while the concession areas in East
Kalimantan still contained virgin forests.

The productive area of Yamaker's West Kalimantan forest
concession is only 84,450 hectares out of 843,000 hectares, he
said.

The East Kalimantan concession areas still contain 129,043
hectares of virgin forests, he said.

Fattah said his company would cooperate with the Tanjungpura
Military Command overseeing Kalimantan on security along the
Indonesia-Malaysia border. (gis)