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.