Timber supply shortage may threatens forests, says NGO

JAKARTA (JP): This year's expected timber supply shortage will further threaten domestic forestry sustainability, according to a non-governmental organization.

The Indonesian Network for Forest Conservation (SKEPHI) said yesterday that the shortage would further encourage timber theft and illegal logging.

The country's natural forests produced only 33 million cubic meters of wood last year, or 82 percent of the wood demanded by domestic wood-processing industries, the organization said.

The network said in a year-end statement that local wood- processing industries had required about 40 million cubic meters of logs last year.

"It means there was a shortage of about seven million cubic meters of wood," it said.

The network's coordinator, S. Indro Tjahjono, said there was a five million-cubic meter shortage of raw material for the pulp and paper industry alone.

"These shortages resulted in numerous cases of timber theft and smuggling last year and caused low timber prices on the local market," Indro said.

"This situation has also tempted many parties to become involved in this illegal business, including local government officials, locals and irresponsible members of the Armed Forces," he said.

He said these parties' "conspiracy" had made it hard to apply forestry laws.

Indro said the low productivity of the country's forests was the result of poor forest management which was apparently caused by the "low integrity" of foresters and businesspeople in forestry.

"Deviations occur because the current economic structure encourages... activities which are against sustainable forest management," he said.

He said that if timber theft, low forest productivity and forest conversion continued this year, the country would suffer from "uncontrollable deforestation" which would result in a loss of one million to two million hectares of forest each year.

"This will threaten the sustainability of Indonesia's tropical forests," he said.

Indro said that low forest productivity -- caused by inefficient logging -- and high timber demand would continue to encourage logging.

"Logging will be done under the guise of forest conversion in areas designated for non-forestry purposes," he said.

He cited the conversion of one million hectares of peat land in Central Kalimantan -- which included large areas of forest -- into rice fields and agricultural plantations.

"From this huge project alone, about six million cubic meters of timber can be harvested over the next two to three years," he said.

Other forest conversion projects included the opening up of forests for new transmigration sites.

He said such conversion projects had helped cover last year's timber shortages.

"SKEPHI is afraid that this year, the need for timber will become a justification for unnecessary forest conversions and this may cause an oversupply of certain plantation commodities such as oil palms," he said.

Indro said there was now an "irrational growth" of pulp and paper companies compared to the availability of their raw materials.

"This development forces the Ministry of Forestry to provide raw material from existing natural forests because timber from estates cannot be harvested yet," he said. (pwn)