Susilo pledges stern action against illegal logging

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.