Revise forestry bill, say former ministers

JAKARTA (JP): Two former ministers criticized the government- sponsored forestry bill on Tuesday, saying the proposed law was too weak to protect the country's forests.

Former minister of environment Emil Salim said the forestry draft bill, which the House of Representatives will begin deliberating on Thursday, should be revised.

"The House's debate of the bill should be delayed until new members of the House are appointed in September," he said.

Former minister of forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said the bill failed to address the rights of local tribes.

"No part of this draft recognizes or protects the rights of local tribes living in the forests," he said.

He also said the draft law failed to account for new worldwide trends and views which regarded forests not merely as sources of wood but also as sources of biodiversity.

"For example, the draft bill explicitly states that forests are to be exploited. It (the draft bill) will not change the mind-set adopted by our timber companies of exploiting the forests to the maximum.

"The draft bill should transform such thinking into environmentally friendly forest management," he said.

Djamaludin, who is actively involved with several non- governmental organizations addressing forest-related issues, said around 16.57 million hectares of the country's 69.74 million hectares of production forests had been damaged since the government began to award forest concessions to timber companies.

"The damage does not include forests destroyed by forest fires from 1997 to 1999," he said.

Emil also said the draft law did not support the government's program of encouraging public participation in the forestry sector.

He said the draft law also failed to support the government's commitment to follow international conventions on forests, biodiversity and the global climate. Under the conventions, the government agreed to protects its virgin forests and reduce the exploitation of forests in order to protect the global climate.

"If the current members of the House pass the bill into law we will see a strong protest from the international community," he said.

The international community has urged Indonesia, which has the world's second largest forest area after Brazil, to protect its forests from further degradation.

Emil also said the draft bill would allow the timber industry to increase its production capacity by 30 percent.

"It will further damage our forests because our production forests cannot produce more logs. This will result in the rampant felling of trees in protected forests and cause a boom in the illegal timber trade," he said.

Emil said the production capacity of the country's wood processing industry already exceeded the number of logs produced by the country's forests.

The country's forests produce 22 million metric tons of logs annually, while the annual capacity of the wood processing industry reaches over 46 million metric tons.

"The government should restructure the country's wood processing industry to meet the supply of logs and improve its efficiency," he said.(gis)