Riau Police move against illegal loggers
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Riau Police confiscated on Saturday more than 1,600 cubic meters of illegally felled logs from Gaung River in Indragiri Hilir regency, during a raid against illegal logging in the province.
Provincial police chief S. Damanhuri was quoted by Antara as saying that the logs belonged to a Malaysian citizen referred to by the initial of F only.
He said the logs were to have been smuggled to neighboring Malaysia.
"Anyone involved in illegal logging -- be they policemen, military officers or forestry officials -- will be apprehended because such activities are causing great losses to the state," said Damanhuri, who has been credited by local media for his success in curbing gambling in the province.
He also appealed to the public not to be tempted by the financial offers made by illegal logging bosses for them to loot local timber.
Illegal logging has been rampant in various parts of the country and has been seen as a major factor behind the rapid destruction of the country's forests. The government has been facing international pressure to resolve the problem.
Earlier this year, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian environmental group Telapak issued a report highlighting the massive looting of merbau wood in Papua to be supplied to China.
The crime was conducted by international syndicates, supported by Indonesian law enforcers and government officials.
Merbau is one of the most valuable timber species in Southeast Asia, but Papuan communities get approximately US$10 a cubic meter for chopping them down. They are then sold for around $270 per cubic meter in China, where the timber is used for furniture and flooring, the report said.
The involvement of military and police officers, customs officials and forestry officials has created difficulties in fighting illegal logging in the country.
The report by the environmental investigators said each component of the syndicate played a specifically defined role -- from Jakarta-based bosses securing protection for shipment, Malaysian logging gangs, Singapore-based shippers arranging transportation for the logs and Hong Kong-based brokers selling huge quantities of merbau, to companies on mainland China.
The government has said that 43 million hectares of Indonesian forests have been damaged or destroyed over the last few decades due to illegal logging, with the average annual deforestation rate estimated at more than 2.8 million hectares since 1998.