Squatting rampant in Leuser park

Squatting rampant in Leuser park

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: Some 13,300 hectares of the 1.2-square
kilometer Gunung Leuser National Park in Southeast Aceh regency
have been denuded due to rampant forest squatting and illegal
logging in the protected national park.

O.K. Ibrahim, spokesman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction at the Aceh provincial
legislature, said here on Tuesday that rampant squatting and
illegal logging in the national park had a lot to do with the
absence of law enforcement by local authorities in Southeast
Aceh.

"Many local officials and law enforcers in the regency not
only tacitly support illegal logging activities but have also
been directly involved in forest plunder," he said at the
legislative council's hearing with the provincial executive.

He said many villages had been inundated by flash flooding
because of the rampant forest plunder.

Deputy Governor Azwar Abubakar, who represented the executive
in the hearing, pledged to halt the rampant squatting and illegal
logging. --Antara