Weak law enforcement causes rampant illegal logging

Weak law enforcement causes rampant illegal logging

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A senior official at the Ministry of Forestry said that
rampant smuggling of the country's timber, in particular trees
classified as endangered was partly due to poor law enforcement
and weak coordination among related authorities.

"It's impossible to rely only on the Ministry of Forestry to
eradicate illegal logging in the country".

"We need integrated cooperation between related departments,
because the current joint cooperation with the Navy and the
Police will come be ineffective without good coordination with
other departments," said Wijono.

Wijono explained that the current Wanalaga and Wanabahari
programs were not enough without the support of other ministries,
such as the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of
Justice and Human Rights.

Wanalaga is a joint cooperation between the Ministry of
Forestry and the Police to curb illegal logging and log
smuggling. Wanabahari is a joint cooperation with the Indonesian
Navy to prevent smuggling of forestry products.

According to Wijono, the basic problem is the lack of law
enforcement in the country. "We need to ensure that the laws are
really being upheld," he said.

Non-governmental organization Telapak and the London-based
Environment Investigation Agency (IEA) said in their joint
investigative report that millions of dollars of endangered ramin
wood had been smuggled from Sumatra to Johor Baru area in
Malaysia, to be made into consumer goods like picture frames and
cribs for export to Hong Kong and Shanghai before final
distribution to Europe and the U.S.

Ramin is a pale-colored tropical hardwood which is listed in
the United Nations Convention on International Trade as an
Endangered Species (CITES).

The investigative report showed that about 4,500 cubic meters
of ramin was smuggled every month from Sumatra to Malaysia.

According to Wijono, in the CITES, ramin is listed in appendix
3, which means that it is in the third priority class of
endangered species.

"We are now struggling to put it (ramin) in appendix 1 for
most endangered species," said Wijono, adding that this would
provide greater international leverage for protecting ramin
trees.

According to one estimate, around 2 million hectares of forest
is destroyed each year due to the illegal logging. If this
illegal logging continues unchecked, the country's virgin rain
forest could be destroyed by 2005.

A number of NGOs and environmentalists have previously accused
corrupt officials of playing a role in the rising number of
illegal activities in the country.

There has been report alleging that the military -- through
its private businesses - has logged illegally and operated saw
mills to pay the daily expenses of troops. The military has long
denied being involved in illegal logging.

The report said that police and the courts have failed to
prosecute illegal loggers, even when other Indonesian agencies,
including the Ministry of Forestry and navy, intervened.

Others also blamed on the weak legal system in the country.
According to the Ministry of Forestry, only 30 cases were brought
to trial last year out of the 150 cases filed.