Reforestation campaign plagued by gloomy political landscape
Reforestation campaign plagued by gloomy political landscape
Musthofid and Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia's already grim prospects of forest rehabilitation are
likely to diminish altogether due to unfavorable political
conditions in the run-up to the 2004 general election, with
political parties helping themselves to the country's natural
resources to finance their campaigns, a notable environmentalist
has said.
"The (political) parties need money for 2004, don't they? They
want to win votes in the election. Where do they get the money
from? It is from natural resources, isn't it?" former environment
minister Emil Salim told The Jakarta Post here on Friday.
Emil was commenting on the inadequate reforestation efforts
that are threatening the existence of Indonesia's forests and the
country's biodiversity and ecosystem.
Exploitation of forests coupled with the government's
inability to impose a proper policy on forest rehabilitation have
resulted in the loss of more than 75 percent of the forests over
the past few decades, leaving only 60 million hectares today.
Uncontrolled exploitation of forests, compounded by
lawlessness and corruption, has resulted in the loss of about two
million hectares of forests annually.
The World Bank predicts that if the current rapid pace of
deforestation continues, Indonesia is set to grapple with the
loss of Sumatra's forests in 2005, with Kalimantan to follow five
years later.
"Be realistic. Don't dream. In the lead-up to 2004, it would
be difficult to eradicate corruption because everybody is
corrupt, be they in the DPR (House of Representatives), in the
parties, in judicial courts and elsewhere," he added.
Political parties rely on donations from businesses, including
forest concessionaires. In many cases, the parties decide the
amount companies must give in return for certain favors.
The deplorable condition of Indonesia's forests is compounded
by sluggish reforestation efforts that will likely continue until
at least 2004.
In fact, the country's reforestation history has been far from
encouraging since the New Order era, with funds often misused or
embezzled. One such case involved a crony of former president
Soeharto, Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, who is currently serving a six-
year jail term after he was convicted for the misappropriation of
US$87.08 million in reforestation funds.
Achmad Sjarmidi, another environment expert, raised the alarm
over the slow reforestation program, saying that only between 10
percent and 15 percent of damaged forests could be recovered.
"It's ironical. Indonesia has yet to keep its commitment to
rebuild its damaged forests," Sjarmidi, who is a lecturer at the
Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), said.
Wahjudi Wardojo, the secretary-general of the Ministry of
Forestry, conceded that the trend in reforestation was gloomy.
"I have to admit we have only been able to rehabilitate a
small portion of the vastly damaged forests."
He said that 43 million hectares of Indonesia's forests had
been damaged over the past five years. Eleven million hectares of
the total area needed immediate rehabilitation.
"Out of the two million hectares targeted (for the 2001
reforestation program), only 34 percent have been realized," he
said, citing poor management and plantation technology as the
main constraints in the effort.
The percentage accounts for 680,000 hectares from the targeted
two million and is far below the 23 million hectares of
critically damaged forests reported in 2001.
Wahjudi said inadequate funding had also impeded the
reforestation program, but he refused to disclose the amount
needed.
Syarmidi said that rampant illegal logging, usually
accompanied with irresponsible land clearing, contributed to
speedy deforestation, which subsequently endangered the
ecosystem.
Reforestation is one of the 12 commitments contained in
Indonesia's forest reform campaign it pledged in a series of
meetings with the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) in 2000.
However, the government plans to prioritize five areas of the
campaign, namely reforestation, illegal logging, forest fires,
restructuring of indebted wood-based industries and forest
inventory and mapping.