State forests looted for Jepara furniture

State forests looted for Jepara furniture

By Yusran Edo Fauzi

BLORA, Central Java (JP): In 1998, particularly in the period
following the May riots, the forests managed by Perum Perhutani
Unit I Central Java in Randublatung, Blora witnessed the illegal
felling of about 19,140 teak trees, making Blora the second
biggest victim of forest looting after Pati regency.

Some of the perpetrators of the illegal felling were arrested
during an operation after the Central Java Police chief issued a
"shoot on sight" order.

Among those arrested were 38 policemen, several military
officers, and a number of forest rangers and Perhutani employees.
Most of them were caught red-handed felling trees, in the street
and at the timber stacking sites.

Unfortunately, the perpetrators of illegal felling this year
are still at large. Also, there has yet to be concrete evidence
produced to support Perhutani's claim that as of July this year,
the state had suffered Rp 4.5 billion in losses.

Local legislative council members and non-governmental
organizations doubt the claim because of the lack of evidence.

In a recent discussion involving Perhutani, the Blora regent,
the local legislative assembly, NGO representatives and
ecologists from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, it
transpired that Blora residents had been looting the timber to
vent their anger at the residents of neighboring Jepara whom they
said had prospered from Blora's teak.

According to Blora residents, the situation is as follows.

The forested area in Blora constitutes 48 percent of the
entire regency. Unfortunately, the forests do not make Blora
residents rich. The Jepara residents get rich, instead, as they
are the purchasers of the timber.

"When I was a university student, I often thought why forest-
rich Blora's roads were in a state of disrepair and also why most
of the residents were badly off. Were these poor conditions the
result of a corrupt bureaucracy or should they be blamed on the
regional legislators who did nothing concrete but collect their
salaries every month," chairman of the Blora regency legislative
assembly, Warsid, said.

Now Warsid knows the reason. Law No. 9/1969 stipulates that
state enterprises should try their best to maximize profit, while
Perum Perhutani is given sole authority over forests in Blora.

The allocation of profits from forest products comes within
the authority of the central government. This means the that the
Blora regency administration has no authority over this matter.
So, the Blora regency administration is reduced to relying solely
on forest royalties as its source of revenue. There are no other
items in the budget which are capable of jacking up the regency's
revenues.

The Blora residents' resentment toward their richer fellows in
Jepara may be likened to the envy that the mainland Chinese
nurtured for the prosperity enjoyed by their fellow Chinese in
Hong Kong when it was still a British colony.

Jepara has hardly any forests. The Jepara people, however, can
make a lot of money as skilled wood craftsmen and carvers, and
depend heavily on forestry. By contrast, the Blora people are
generally barely able to keep body and soul together despite
their vast forests.

In Blora, where some 7,000 people have lost their jobs since
the crisis began in July 1997, rice cultivation is not a viable
alternative as a kilogram of unhusked rice only fetches Rp 800
nowadays.

In fact, the same thing applies in Jepara but the farmers
there have another alternative for earning a living. Furniture
factories prioritize local Jepara people when recruiting workers
into the thriving industry.

In 1998 alone, some 600,000 cubic meters of teak, mahogany and
other varieties of timber that cost about Rp 4 million per cubic
meter, were purchased for the production of carved wooden
furniture.

The official data show that as of this November, Jepara is
home to some 4,000 furniture producers. Most of their products
are exported with a profit margin of over 100 percent. That's why
they are always ready to buy teak at high prices regardless of
whether it is looted or Perhutani-labeled. Their production costs
are paid in rupiah but their earnings are in US dollars.

There are some 60,000 Jepara residents working in this sector.
They have all benefited from the increase in the value of the US
dollar against the rupiah.

It is also the case that, according to the Jepara agricultural
office, there are some 240,000 farmers in the area. They grow
Chavendis bananas for export. So in general, the pinch of the
monetary crisis has not been felt in Jepara.

Just as in other places that have reaped windfalls from the
rise in the dollar's exchange rate against the local currency, in
Jepara the people spend their newfound wealth buying land,
automobiles, jewelry and expensive electronic equipment.

The opposite has happened in Blora. The increase in the
exchange rate of the US dollar against the rupiah has dealt a
strong blow to the regency's economy. Only a few people operate
furniture home industries. They do not export their products
because they cannot compete with their fellows from Jepara.

In terms of regional revenues, the contribution of furniture
exports has shown a downward trend. In fiscal 1997/98 at the
early stage of the monetary crisis, the furniture industry
contributed 14.48% of overall revenues. This figure fell to 10.65
percent in 1998/99.

Understandably, the people of Blora are envious of their
neighbors in Japara. Instead of physically assaulting the Jepara
people, they have turned this envy into a desire to get rich
quickly by illegally felling teak and mahogany trees.

The indications showing that illegal felling has taken place
in Blora can be gleaned from the data collected by the local
Perum Perhutani. Jepara needs some 600,000 cubic meters of
timber. This quantity is far beyond Perum Perhutani's capacity.

This state enterprise is able to supply a total of only
676,000 cubic meters to meet the total demand in Central Java and
Yogyakarta. If it were to meet the demand from Jepara, Perhutani
would only have 76,600 m3 left for these two provinces.

Obviously, the high demand for timber in Jepara has prompted
people to fell trees illegally, especially since the onset of the
economic crisis.

"If there were not such a high demand from the furniture
industry in Jepara, few would resort to illegal felling," said an
observer of forest ecology, Rama Ardana Astraatmaja of Arupa, a
Yogyakarta-based non-governmental organization.

Chief of the forest management unit in Blora, Soemarsono, said
that the forests under his control saw illegal felling of some
318,000 cubic meters of timber between January 1998 and July
2000, most of which was teak.

This massive illegal felling has reduced the forested area by
4,433.85 hectares. "In the year 2000 alone, Perum Perhutani in
the Randublatung forest management unit in Blora has sustained
losses worth Rp 4.5 billion. The magnitude of the illegal felling
has left us deeply shocked!" he said.