Regions race to issue licenses

Regions race to issue licenses

Nearly every regency in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua has issued an average of 150 timber licenses per year, each covering an area of up to 10,000 ha, according to the report from the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Forestry.

The report, which was seen by The Jakarta Post last week, does not provide a comprehensive report on the total licenses issued by the regencies, but only gives some examples.

Sintang regency in West Kalimantan, between 2001 and 2002, issued 409 licenses covering a total area of 41,000 ha. The regency has targeted its timber output to reach 1.26 million cubic meters per year, according to the report.

In Sanggau, another regency in West Kalimantan, the local administration has targeted an output of 400,000 cubic meters of timber per year.

The target is indeed alarming as the ministry has limited the log output this year to only 6.5 million cubic meters, from 12 million last year, in order to help reduce deforestation.

"We just cannot imagine how detrimental the regencies' moves have been to our forests. What will happen if 100 regencies target the same output?" said Lumisu.

Issuance of such licenses is also widespread in Papua, but in a different way, he said.

In that area, businesspeople use easily manipulated tribal chiefs to obtain licenses.

Under the local regulations, a tribe can apply to the provincial government for the right to develop tanah adat (traditional land), of up to 10,000 ha.

Once they obtain the licenses, they pass them on to the businesspeople who have urged them to apply for them in the first place. --JP