Rangers stage rally to save forests

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Hundreds of forest rangers and employees of state-owned forestry company (Perhutani) in Surabaya, East Java, staged a rally in protest at corruption within the firm and for better pay.

"We don't want KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism) in Perhutani to cause damage to the forests," a protester told a crowd gathered at the company's offices on Jl. Genteng Kali, Surabaya.

The demonstrators, from the Sekarjati Workers Union, arrived outside the offices at around 9:30 a.m., carrying posters and banners.

Some crowded a section of the street and urged residents to support their move.

After they had secured the public's attention the protesters moved slowly to the parking lot to the west of the Perhutani building.

Protest leader Marinus Ezerman stated that he and other employees had, for a long time, been dissatisfied at Perhutani's performance.

"We often find irregularities, but those involved in such practices continue to secure good positions in Perhutani," he said.

This time the employees demanded the practices stop immediately, Ezerman added. "Field workers have always been blamed for forest destruction, whereas those who damage them are our leaders, who are corrupt."

The protesters also urged the company to pay extra attention to efforts to restore the ecological balance in forests. "We are the ones who really know about the state of the forests, and are very concerned at the issue," Ezerman said.

As with forests in other provinces across the country, forests in East Java have suffered from severe destruction.

In the 1990s some 80,000 hectares of forest were damaged; destruction increased to 110,000 hectares in 2000, and to more than 150,000 hectares a year later. These figures exclude areas that could no longer be classified as forest as they could not function as such anymore.