Riau Police move against illegal loggers
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.