Task force required to fight illegal logging
Task force required to fight illegal logging
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government should set up a task force to deal with rampant
illegal logging, mining and poaching, which are causing billions
of dollars in state losses, the National Resilience Institute
(Lemhannas) said.
"Such a task force should be taken into consideration -- the
government must eliminate the roots of the problem," Lemhannas
head Ermaya Suradinata told a House Commission hearing on
security affairs on Wednesday.
Ermaya estimated the loss from illegal logging at US$3.5
billion a year while fish poaching cost the state $4 billion
annually. Sand smuggling and fuel smuggling added another $8.1
billion.
"Indonesia's economy will collapse if these evil practices are
not stopped," Ermaya warned.
The combined $15.6 billion of annual losses equaled 37 percent
of the expected domestic revenue in the current fiscal year and
was three times Indonesia's foreign debt budget.
Commission members said the sand smuggling, mostly used for
reclamation projects overseas, had reduced Indonesia's territory.
They suspected the rampant theft was perpetrated by government
officials from different institutions with well-knit
coordination.
Ermaya suggested the government not only focus on big-time
criminals, but also on officials in Jakarta and in regional
administrations.
Illegal logging, Ermaya said, was visible in the Annual Review
and Assessment of the World Timber Association 2001, which found
discrepancies in the volume of Indonesia's official timber
exports and the data of imported timber in recipient countries
such as China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands and the U.S.
According to the report, China imported 617,712 cubic meters
of logs from Indonesia in 2000, but data in Indonesia showed that
it exported only 6,054 M3 to the world's most populated country.
Malaysia claimed to import 523,000 M3 of logs from Indonesia
in the same period but Indonesia had no reported exports to its
neighbor.
"Discrepancies are found not only in data about logs, but also
in timber and pulp," Ermaya added.
Legislators expressed their disappointment with the increasing
scale of illegal logging.
Deputy chairman of the Reform faction Djoko Susilo said the
illegal logging had left 43 million hectares of land in a
critical condition.
"Deforestation has depleted between 1.6 hectare to 2.1 hectares
of forest per year. It also has destroyed some species of our
diverse forests," he said.
Sidarto Danusubroto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle also expressed a similar concern. Local government
officials had been involved in the "illegal logging mafia," he
said.
Sidarto supported Minister of Forestry Muhammad Prakosa who
has planned to launch a logging moratorium in an attempt to save
the forest.
The proposal has been opposed by four governors in Kalimantan,
home to most of the country's tropical forest timber.