Pulping the forests

The concern repeatedly voiced by both domestic and foreign evironmentalists over what they call over-capacity licensing by the government in the pulp industry over the last few years is legitimate. The development of pulp wood estates appears not to be as smooth and efficient as the government apparently had estimated when it licensed more than three million tons in additional pulp making capacity to realize Indonesia's ambition to become the world's largest pulp producer.

A report by the Ministry of Forestry shows that only 13 percent of the 4.05 million hectares designated for pulp wood plantations had been planted by the end of last year. If the development of the pulp industry proceeds according to schedule, we are afraid that the industry will have to pulp natural forests because the opening of wood plantations continues to run at a snail's pace.

This concern has also been raised by Neil Byron of the Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor. Last month he questioned the sustainability of the fledgling pulp industry amid the current uncertainty about wood plantation development.

The record is even more disappointing because 2.62 million ha of the total estate concessions were licensed to 13 companies in the late 1980s. But these 13 concessionaires have developed only around 493,510 ha of their land. That means, on average, each of the concessionaires has planted a maximum of only 6,300 ha a year.

What makes the poor achievement even more perplexing is the fact that nine of the pulp wood estate projects are joint ventures between private and state-owned forest companies. The four private sector concessionaires which are not tied up with state companies accounted for more than 33 percent of the planted area. That once again serves to strengthen our doubts about the ability of the state forest companies, which the forestry ministry has been trumpeting as being in the vanguard of sustainable forest management.

The poor record further raises doubts about the efficacy of the government policy of putting poorly-managed private sector concessions under the management of state forest companies and of making it mandatory for new timber estate projects to have one of the state companies as a business partner.

The government policy that emphasizes the development of pulp wood plantations should actually be hailed as it has been designed as a component of the concept of sustainable forest management. Theoretically the program could curb the pressures on the natural forests which, according to official and independent estimates, have been decreasing by between 800,000 and 1.2 million ha a year due to logging, conversion and slash-and- burning farm practices. Indonesia also has comparative advantages in pulp making due to its labor-intensive nature and the conducive climate that allows trees to grow throughout the year. Put another way, this country could become the lowest-cost pulp producer in the world.

What however has been missing from the laudable concept are the crucial preparations for pulp wood plantations which are still new practices. Pulp wood estates are different from plantations or regreening projects to protect watersheds. The former require the choosing of a suitable species; identifying seed provenances to obtain the desired fiber length, wood density and disease resistance seedlings; large nursery centers and massive site preparations. All these, besides requiring the support of continuous research, require a few years before large capacity nursery centers can be established on wood plantation sites. In other countries which have successfully developed pulp wood plantations, most of the preparations were initially done by government agencies.

Our problem though is that pulp mills have been licensed even before the investors open their wood plantations. No wonder therefore, that most pulp mills depend on the wood derived from the clear-cutting of their concession area which is designated for pulp wood plantations. But as the pace of pulp wood plantation development has been very slow, as reported by the forestry ministry, the pulp industry may have to rely for much longer on natural forest wood.