Stronger action needed to stop forest burning

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) has called on the government to take stronger action against companies accused of burning forests, and says it is not enough to merely revoke their wood-use permits.

It says the decision last week by the Ministry of Forestry to revoke permits should be copied by the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Land Agency and the provincial administration.

"Unless this is done, the company (whose wood-use permit is revoked) can still operate under a different company name with its existing licenses," Walhi's executive director Emmy Hafild told journalists at her office here yesterday.

The Ministry of Forestry announced last week that it had "temporarily" revoked 154 wood-use permits belonging to 29 of 173 plantation companies and timber estates in Sumatra and Kalimantan accused of burning forests.

Under the current regulation, a company is entitled to exploit the forest only after it receives a wood-use permit, a land-use permit from the Land Agency, an agribusiness permit from the Ministry of Agriculture and another permit from the provincial administration.

Emmy said the owners of the forest burning companies should be tried for their alleged environmental crime.

She said Walhi estimated that "up to 1.7 million hectares of forest" were destroyed by this year's fires. This estimate was based on the number of hot spots detected by satellite over the past two months.

Emmy said Walhi estimated that the total financial loss due to timber losses, hospital treatment costs and airline flight and tourist cancellations was Rp 6.2 trillion (US$1.7 billion).

The government has yet to provide its finite estimate of forest areas burned this year, but the Ministry of Forestry said last week that 96,000 hectares of forest areas had been destroyed resulting in a Rp 45 billion financial loss.

But, according to the Ministry of Agriculture last week, more than 120,000 hectares of plantations were ravaged.

State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja estimated earlier that 300,000 hectares of forest and land had been razed by fire in the past three months.

The Ministry of Transportation announced last week an estimated loss of Rp 20 billion from the haze.

But Walhi's executive director said: "Our estimate is not final because the fires are still raging." Brush and forest fires have ravaged areas in the nine provinces of Kalimantan and Sumatra.

Walhi, which celebrates its 17th anniversary today, issued a statement calling on the government to "totally correct its developmental policy", which, it says, has mismanaged the nation's natural resources.

"This year's forest fires have been the fifth. I am afraid we haven't learned anything from the previous recurrent disaster," Emmy said.

In its statement, Walhi called for a "basic and fundamental change" in the government's way of managing the country's natural resources.

"Unless we do so, the nation will soon be bankrupt," Emmy said. (aan)