UN plans to import timber for Nias reconstruction
UN plans to import timber for Nias reconstruction
Michael Casey, Associated Press/Jakarta
UN officials in Indonesia plan to import timber from as far away
as North America for reconstruction on earthquake-ravaged Nias
Island to prevent the country's tropical forests being plundered,
officials said Monday.
The world body expects to put out the first tender for 20,000
cubic meters (70,600 cubic feet) of timber in the next couple of
weeks, said Robert Ashe, the regional representative for the
United Nations' refugee agency in Jakarta.
It plans to provide the lumber free to any aid groups
rebuilding the 12,000 houses needed on Nias Island, where a
massive earthquake in March killed 900 people and left 16,000
people homeless.
The lumber will be sourced from sustainable plantations and
tenders will go out to companies worldwide, Ashe said.
Environmentalist groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) and Indonesian local leaders, including the governor of
Aceh province, have expressed concern that the timber "not come
at the expense of Indonesia's forests," said Ashe.
"By bringing in imported timber, we avoid that possibility,"
he said.
The plan has been welcomed by the Indonesian government, which
has complained that a shortage of timber on the island and
difficulty finding legal timber has slowed the reconstruction
there. So far, only 200 houses have been built.
"This is good news for us," said William Sabandar, head of the
government agency responsible for Nias reconstruction.
"The concern is building houses using legal timber," he said.
"The problem with Nias is that there are no forests on the
island. There is a lot of timber out there (in Indonesia), but we
have a lot of problems determining whether it's legal or not. We
don't want to put additional pressure on Indonesia's forests."
Indonesia has also called for the importation of timber for
reconstruction in Aceh province, where the December tsunami
wreaked far worse damage and killed 131,000 people. But so far,
no aid agency has taken the lead in importing the timber, raising
concerns that illegal timber is being used, officials said.
Environmentalists have warned that the construction of 100,000
homes needed in Aceh could further shrink the habitat of
threatened species such as the Sumatran tigers, elephants and
orangutans.
There are believed to be between 400 and 500 Sumatran tigers
living in the wild, and some 7,000 Sumatran orangutans. Many of
those live in central Aceh's 2.6 million hectare Leuser National
Park.
The WWF has been working with the U.S.-based American Forest
and Paper Association to import wood to Aceh for tsunami
reconstruction. The WWF says that 50 containers of about 2,000
cubic meters of wood could be sent to the province by October but
it has acknowledged that it would be far short of what is needed.