Stronger action needed to stop forest burning

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)