RI, China fail to agree on fighting illegal logging

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia and China have failed to seal a key agreement in a ministerial level meeting to fight against the trade of illegal forestry products due to "a widely different perception".

Indonesian Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban pointed to China's concept on illegal trade in which the country's regulation stipulates that all commodities entering China were deemed legal.

"In the ministerial meeting, officials failed to agree on efforts to prevent the illegal trade of forestry products from Indonesia to China as the latter did not care where the commodities came from," he said at the State Palace on Monday.

The ministerial meeting was held to prepare for the signing of eight bilateral agreements between Indonesia and China during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit after attending the Asian- African Summit last week.

Despite the failed meeting, Kaban was optimistic that the upcoming negotiation with China over illegal trade would bear fruit.

Indonesia and China signed on Monday agreements on a strategic partnership aimed at improving the already-good bilateral relations between them which have been built up for more than 50 years.

"To reach a mutual understanding and concept on the illegal trade of forestry products is a process. I'm optimistic that eventually we will reach an agreement," said Kaban.

Chinese's booming economy has created a need for oil, minerals as well as forestry products. The increasing demand in the property sector -- to respond to the needs of richer Chinese who build more houses and buy more books and newspapers -- means there is a greater need for forestry products.

Kaban estimated that illegal trade in forestry products from Indonesia to China, especially raw timber, in the past couple of years has reached some 9 million cubic meters valued at Rp 18 trillion (US$1.86 billion).

Indonesia has banned raw timber exports since 2003, following rampant illegal logging at home which has been caused by a growing demand for timber from the forestry industry in China and Malaysia.

A joint study by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Forest Trends and the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy last year disclosed that between 1997 and 2002 China's import on forest products rose by 75 percent from $6.4 billion to $11.2 billion.

Preliminary figures suggest that imports reached almost $13 billion in 2003, with the majority of Chinese forest product imports coming from Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Canada, the study said.

Indonesia, Russia and Canada altogether account for over 60 percent of the pulp and paper imports, while Indonesia is the largest source of plywood and lumber products for the world's most populous country.

Kaban and Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu had offered China the opportunity to open its forestry industry in Indonesia, in order to limit the trade of illegal timber and to ensure a sustainable timber supply for its industry.

"We have offered them the opportunity to invest in our downstream forestry industry so that they could receive a legal timber supply from sustainable resources. We will give them incentives if they agree to it," said Kaban.

China has made several moves to protect its own forests by putting a halt to most logging in many areas and closing down thousands of small factories and mills, resulting in the skyrocketing import of timber, lumber and pulp.