Pulping the forests
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.