Susilo pledges stern action against illegal logging

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated his pledge on Thursday to fight illegal logging and crack down on officials, police and military personnel found to be supporting it.

"The government will deal seriously with this logging that has destroyed our forests... What loggers and smugglers have done so has caused huge losses to the nation and the state," he told a meeting of governors, mayors and regents in Kalimantan, as reported by Antara.

Police, military chiefs and community figures also attended the meeting held in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.

Earlier Susilo had flown by helicopter over the Tanjung Puting National Park where he saw how many hectares of the protected forest had been destroyed by logging or illegal burn-offs for land clearing.

He was accompanied by his wife, Kristiani Herawati, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and forestry minister Malam Sabat Kaban, chief security minister Widodo Adi Sucipto, justice minister Hamid Awaludin, home affairs minister M. Ma'ruf and industry minister Andung Nitimihardja.

Susilo said his visit to Pangkalan Bun was the government's first step to stop widespread deforestation blamed on illegal loggers.

"From this moment, I instruct all central and local administration heads, in particular law enforcers, not to tolerate illegal loggers and smugglers," he said to applause from the audience.

Susilo told local administrations to be more careful in granting forest concessions in order to prevent further misuse.

"For law enforcers, they should not hesitate to take firm action against illegal loggers and their backers," he said.

Susilo said he summoned Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh on Wednesday to provide him with reports about law enforcement in cases that caused huge losses to the state, including illegal logging.

Last Friday, Susilo made a similar pledge in Jakarta that his government would take "tough action" against illegal loggers.

He described widespread deforestation -- much of it done with the complicity of corrupt government officials -- the hunting of protected wildlife and maritime pollution as "serious" problems.

"The government will get tough with the perpetrators and will take them to court where they will receive severe punishments," he said.

"We will not allow this greed to continue," he told guests attending a ceremony marking National Wildlife Day.

Susilo, who took office on Oct. 20, has pledged broad reforms to clean up government, also said the use of dynamite for fishing in many remote provinces was damaging Indonesia's famed coral reefs.

Widespread deforestation has depleted Indonesia's once-rich natural heritage, while fires in illegal land clearing operations have caused hazy smog -- a problem to Indonesia and also to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.

The deforestation is also thought to have increased deadly floods and landslides in the country.

The involvement of military and police officials in illegal logging is common across much of the huge archipelago.

A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch, and Forest Watch Indonesia Reports said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares of forest annually -- an area half the size of Switzerland.

Forest cover fell from 162 million hectares in 1950 to 98 million hectares in 2000, they said.