Timber firms halt work due to conflicts with locals

Timber firms halt work due to conflicts with locals

JAKARTA (JP): At least 50 timber companies have stopped their
logging activities due to security uncertainty and growing
conflicts with local communities, according to the Association of
Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI).

Association chairman Adiwarsita Adinegoro said the local
residents not only claimed ownership of the association members
forest concession areas but also often threatened their workers.

"The government must act immediately to solve the land
disputes with local communities, otherwise more companies will
have to stop their logging operations, causing a severe shortage
in the supply of logs to the country's wood-based industries," he
said as quoted by Antara on Thursday.

He declined to name the 50 timber companies, which control
about 10 million hectares of forest areas in Irian Jaya,
Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

According to official data, more than 80 percent of the country's
forest areas area are controlled by the family and close friends
of former president Soeharto. Many parts of their concession
areas overlap with local residents' farm land but they often took
over the areas without giving any compensation. The residents
could do nothing but accept their presence due to threats from
security guards at the timber companies.

With the downfall of Soeharto in late 1997, and the rise of a
more democratic government, people began to feel more courageous
about expressing their opinions and voicing their demands, albeit
at the risk of violence.

"Most of the logging companies operate in Papua, where
investment in the logging business amounts to Rp 535 billion
(US$72 million). They can no longer operate because of disputes
with the locals," the association's chairman said, adding that
the conflict with the local residents could severely affect the
country's log production target.

Earlier last month, some 77 loggers in East Kalimantan
threatened to close down their operation in response to continued
conflicts with local communities.

The companies said local people in East Kalimantan's Kutai and
Bulungan districts had taken over some of their heavy equipment
and demanded compensation amounting to billions of rupiah.

Separately, representatives of 12 villages in Rambang Lubai in
the Muara Enim regency of South Sumatra, met senior officials of
the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations here on Friday to demand
the return of their land now under the control of PT Musi Hutan
Persada (MHP), an industrial estate developer partly owned by
Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana.

The villagers also demanded Rp 301 billion in compensation for
the loss, which occurred due to their inability to produce any
crops since the company took over their land.

The group's spokesman, Junial Komar, said MHP annexed their
land in 1991 without an initial announcement or compensation and
refused to negotiate with the locals.

"The military and police officers guard the estate and always
interfere whenever we try to bring the case to the company's
management," he said.

MHP, which is also partly owned by timber magnate Prajogo
Pangestu, manages some 193,715 hectares of industrial forest area
to supply pulp company PT Tanjung Enim Lestari, jointly owned by
several Japanese investors. (cst/01)