Private concessionaires lack qualified personnel
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo yesterday criticized private forest concessionaires for their lack of qualified staff, saying this could make them unfit to comply with ecolabeling requirements.
Speaking to forestry officials at the opening of a 4-day workshop, Djamaludin said that the personnel situation in privately-owned forest concessionaires was "critical", compared with those overseen by his ministry, particularly in areas dealing with the ecolabeling process.
This is a system whereby timber products will be labeled if they come from sustainable forests in tropical countries. It will soon become a prerequisite before such products will be allowed to enter markets in many countries.
The workshop is being attended by high-ranking forestry ministry officials from all 27 provinces.
Djamaludin said the lack of qualified employees was mostly felt at the field-supervisor and technician levels.
"There is an urgent need to increase the private sector's role in training and educating forestry personnel," he said.
Djamaludin also emphasized the importance of the private sector's participation in ensuring the survival of the country's natural forests and in maintaining their sustainability.
"Forest security is presently overseen only by the government's forest rangers and forest-security teams... The private sector has yet to take up any of this responsibility," he said.
The minister said that although indigenous forest people were those most affected by logging activities, they were the least able to contribute to forest sustainability.
"They can only participate in securing natural forests if they are sensitive to the proper use of the forests," adding that many forest dwellers needed greater education and training to make them more aware of how to improve forest sustainability.
Exports
Responding to questions about the prospects of forest-based industries, Djamaludin said he was convinced they would do well.
He said that although he was aware that many analysts foresaw a gloomy future for forest-based industries owing to the decline in raw material supplies, the government had anticipated this by encouraging the development of industrial timber estates.
"Currently, the industries still rely on natural forests -- which grow at a very slow rate -- for their wood supplies and we have not yet been able to plant large-scale timber estates," he admitted.
"But we will speed up the development of timber estates, especially fast-growing species which will be suitable for industries such as pulp and paper, medium density fiberboard and particle board," he said.
These industries, Djamaludin said, would replace the plywood industry as the main foreign currency earner in the future because plywood required logs of large diameters.
Meanwhile, the executive chairman of the Association of Indonesian Wood Panel Producers, Tjipto A. Wigjoprajitno, said plywood prices on the world market were now rising in line with the economic recovery in importing countries, such as Japan, European countries and the United States.
Plywood prices in Japan recently increased by US$20 per cubic meter, in Europe by $25 and in South Korea by $20 to $22.
Plywood prices currently range between $395 and $670, depending on its quality.
According to the statistics of the Indonesian Forest Society, exports of forest products in 1994 reached $6.41 billion, down from $6.79 billion in 1993.
In 1994, exports of forest products accounted for 21.1 percent of the total non-oil exports, down from 25.2 percent in 1993. (pwn)