Stop logging in Nias: Councillor
Stop logging in Nias: Councillor
MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Speaker of Nias Legislative Council
Ali Amran Tanjung urged the Nias administration on Sunday to
temporarily stop rampant logging on the island to help halt the
rapid rate of deforestation, blamed as the main reason behind the
recent major floods.
"It's time for the Nias administration to issue a policy
ordering logging to stop, otherwise it's feared that a similar
disaster will recur," Ali Amran told The Jakarta Post by phone.
According to data at the Nias Disaster Task Force, the death
toll from the disaster, which severely hit six districts --
Lahusa, Lolowa'u, Telukdalam, Lolomatua, Gomo and Bawolato --
since Tuesday, reached 72, as of Sunday evening, with 187 people
missing and at least 644 houses, five school buildings, three
churches and four bridges destroyed.
The number of victims will likely increase in line with the
evacuation work currently being carried out.
Nias Regent Binahati D. Bahea said that assistance in the form
of food and medicine had started arriving in Nias from central
government, the province of North Sumatra and military and
civilian institutions.
"Besides food and medicine, the victims are badly in need of
clothes and blankets as those who have survived wear only the
clothes that they have on them," Bahea said, as quoted by Antara.
Ali Amran said that deforestation was allowed to take place in
Nias because the local administration had failed to adequately
control indiscriminate logging in the area.
He reiterated that the stoppage of logging had to take place
as soon as possible because the Nias administration had never
reprimanded those businessmen guilty of heavily exploiting the
existing wood resources.
"It seems as if the regent of Nias has allowed these practices
to continue the way they always were," he said.
The Post, which tried to check Ali Amran's statements to
Bahea, could not reach him on Sunday.
North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin had instructed the
regent, during a meeting with flood victims, to take stern action
against those businessmen backing illegal logging. The governor
visited the flood-hit areas on Thursday.
Nias, according to Prie Supriadi, head of the North Sumatra
forestry office, had been classified by the Minister of Forestry
in 1999 as one of the most critical areas of the country.
Despite this classification, however, not a single
reforestation program had so far been introduced by the central
government in the area, Prie said.
Due to a lack of reforestation funds, Prie said that the North
Sumatra forestry office had only managed to finance the
reforestation of 50 hectares in Nias over the past two years.
This is far from enough to cover the entire critical area,
which covers 160,016 hectares, he said, adding that replanting
all of Nias' critical area would need billions of rupiah as
reforesting just one-hectare of land costs at least Rp 1.5
million (US$157.8).
Ali Amran explained that, of the six flood-hit districts, Gomo
and Lahusa had experienced a golden age between 1997 and 1998,
when patchouli oil produced from the area fetched up to Rp 1.2
million per kilogram.
The high prices made the two districts the center of rupiah
circulation in Nias, he said. Therefore, many local people
competed to convert existing forest into plantation areas to
support the ever-increasing patchouli oil production.
The rampant conversion of forest for plantation purposes was
unfortunately backed by greedy businessmen, who exploited the
local people without considering the future effects of their
actions, he said.
Ali Amran said that there were at least three patchouli oil
producing companies that had exploited the forests for years
without considering the importance of the surrounding
environment. "Despite their widespread conduct, though, they have
never been reprimanded by the authorities," he said. (42/hhr)