Timber estate, pulp plant development questioned
JAKARTA (JP): Japanese parliamentarians and members of non- governmental organizations (NGO) questioned the development of a timber estate and pulp plant in South Sumatra, which are suspected to have negative impacts on the people in surrounding areas.
Parliamentarian Shinichi Koizumi and Coordinator of the Japan Tropical Forest Action Network, Yoichi Kuroda, said that studies have shown the development of the pulp plant, to be built by PT Tanjung Enim Lestari, and the timber estate, owned by PT Musi Hutan Persada, has sparked land conflicts with the indigenous people of the area, the Antara news agency reported over the weekend.
Minister
Kuroda, accompanied by members of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), met on Friday with Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo to report on the studies conducted by Walhi.
The ministry's inspector general, Hariadi Darmawan, quoted Djamaludin as saying that the Japanese were concerned that Japan's financial aid -- provided for reforestation projects and the construction of a pulp factory in South Sumatra -- would not reach its objective but would instead cause problems with indigenous people.
Japan's donor agencies for Indonesia's forest development projects include the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.
JICA is a donor to the government's reforestation program in several areas of South Sumatra. According to Walhi, the areas have been taken over by Musi Persada.
Walhi's studies have also discovered that Musi Persada, in order to establish its timber estate, has appropriated the land of seven indigenous villages at an extremely low price.
According to Walhi's site surveys, Musi Persada has also allocated an area with an extremely low tree density for its conservation site and an area with a high tree density for its timber estate.
Destruction
Kuroda pointed out that forest destruction caused by such operations could endanger the people's lives.
Walhi also reported that Tanjung Enim had problems with the 1,600 hectares of land intended for its pulp factory.
The land currently overlaps with five villages.
Kuroda considered the compensation offered by Tanjung Enim to the people was too small and provided them with no means of security.
"The minister agrees that development must not disregard the people's interest. Problems related to the social and public aspects of the forest will be highly regarded by the government," Hariadi said.
"All the problems will be carefully taken care of, but it is impossible to satisfy everyone," Djamaludin said.
Tanjung Enim, a subsidiary of the Barito Pacific Group, will be built in collaboration with Japan's Marubeni Corp. and Nippon Paper Industries.
The two Japanese companies are expected to invest about US$100 million in the planned $1 billion pulp factory.
Tanjung Enim's pulp production, planned to have an initial capacity of 450,000 tons per year -- which will be increased to one million tons a year -- will require some two million cubic meters of raw material during its first year of production.
Timber supply for the factory is expected to come from Musi Persada's timber estate.
Musi Persada, 60 percent owned by Barito Pacific and 40 percent by state-owned PT Inhutani II, has concessions of 193,000 hectares for industrial timber plantation in South Sumatra. (pwn)