RI illegal logs used to build new UK home ministry offices

RI illegal logs used to build new UK home ministry offices

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government said on Tuesday it would investigate two companies
which, according to environmental group Greenpeace's recent
investigative report, have been allegedly involved in the
supplying of illegal logs from Indonesian rainforests to build
the UK's new home ministry office building in London.

State Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim said on Tuesday
that the government would "chase after" the two timber companies
identified as PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya and PT Raja Garuda Mas,
to prove the report.

"We'll take harsh actions if the two companies are guilty of
stealing logs from protected forests, but it won't be easy to get
them," Nabiel told reporters after the opening ceremony of a
seminar on Java forest management.

The 1982 environmental law and the 1999 forestry law both ban
logging in protected forests and both the laws carry a maximum of
15 years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 5 billion (US$609,756).

Separately, Indonesian Forum on Environment (Walhi) executive
director Longgena Ginting said environmental NGOs would fully
support any stiff punishment the government meted out to the two
companies.

Last week, Greenpeace activists hung themselves off of cranes
on a British government construction site where timber and
plywood used in the project and claimed the wood was stolen from
rainforests in Indonesia.

The environmental group's report was based on its own
investigation in Indonesia and it said it had evidence that the
timber and plywood used in the projects were processed from
illegal logs the two companies stole from the rainforests.

A British government spokeswoman said an investigation would
be carried out to check on whether the wood being used on the
London construction site was illegal.

Nabiel added that the government would also take action
against all sides, including the cartels, who allegedly support
and secure most aspects of the rampant illegal logging.

"The government has won full support from the House of
Representatives to impose harsher punishment on illegal loggers,"
he said.

Logging in protected rainforests and national parks has
increased markedly since the fall of the iron-fisted Soeharto
regime, whose limited number of close cronies were known to have
the forestry -- legal and otherwise -- market cornered, thus
keeping down the numbers of those involved.

Since Soeharto stepped down, the country has been in a
prolonged economic crisis marked by weak law enforcement, greater
regional decision-making powers and an increasing demand for
timber and plywood in foreign markets, in addition to the
involvement of unauthorized military and police personnel in
illegal logging.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono has admitted
that his personnel are involved in illegal logging in protected
forests and pledged to take some sort of action against them.

But, so far, not a single person has been punished for such
illegal logging, which threatens to denude the country's
rainforests within a few years.

The Ministry of Forestry has said that illegal loggers have
formed covert cartels and that their operation was quite hard to
track down because of obstacles by military elements. They are
suspected of having links with international networks in
countries supplying the illegal logs from Indonesia.

According to Greenpeace, Indonesia may lose much of its
lowland forests by 2010 with an area roughly the size of Bali and
Lombok combined, destroyed every year.

The illegal logging activities in Indonesia have inflicted
losses to the country to the tune of Rp 30 trillion ($3.75
billion) annually.