Reforestation fund
Reforestation fund
From Koran Tempo
As reported in The Jakarta Post on May 21, the secretary-
general of the Ministry of Forestry, Wahjudi Wardojo, made
several conflicting statements in a hearing with Commission III
of the House of Representatives on May 20.
While our forest areas are diminishing, the reforestation fund
of Rp 10,875 trillion has just vanished into thin air. On paper,
part of this fund -- Rp 8,426 trillion -- has gone to the account
of the minister of finance. Then Rp 2,360 trillion has been
deposited at the state's treasury office. Another sum -- Rp 1,653
trillion -- has been transferred to the account of the minister
of forestry. The total amount is quite huge: Rp 12,349 trillion.
On the one hand, the government -- in this case the ministry
of forestry -- talks about the deterioration of our forest areas
but on the other hand, the reforestation program has been
progressing very, very slowly. In the hearing, Wardojo warned
that the reforestation fund should be carefully spent as
otherwise it would be used up in four to five years. The question
is why there should be any worry if the money is wholly spent on
reforestation.
In the hearing, Wardojo said that the fund was also allocated
to finance other activities of the ministry of forestry,
restructuring of forestry businesses, control over illegal
logging and some other projects. As the fund is not fully
designated for reforestation purposes, the easiest way to reduce
forest damage will be to cut down on the annual logging allotment
for official forest concessionaires.
On the occasion, Wardojo told the legislators that the
official logging allotment for forest concessionaires had been
reduced to 5.7 million m3 in 2004 from 6.8 million m3 in 2003, 12
million m3 in 2002 and 21 million m3 in 2001. One big question is
what has been done about illegal loggers.
When forest concessionaires fail to pay their reforestation
fund, the government can easily refuse to issue a certificate
stating that certain forest produce is legal or refuse to approve
their annual working scheme. The question is what has the
government done about the illegal logging bosses regarding the
collection of the reforestation fund.
DEHEN BINTI
Banjarmasin
South Kalimantan