West Java administration suspends industrial logging

West Java administration suspends industrial logging

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The West Java administration has decided to suspend all
industrial logging for the next three years in an attempt to
regreen its barren forest areas, which have contributed to
environmental deterioration and natural disasters such as floods
and landslides over the last few years.

With the decision it hoped it would have a "breathing space"
to rehabilitate its devastated forest and draft a bylaw to
control its forestry and maintain its sustainable development
program.

Mubiar Purwasasmita, an environment expert from the Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB), told a media conference here on
Wednesday that the moratorium on logging was the only feasible
option for seeking a comprehensive solution to salvaging the
province's forests, 95 percent of which had been converted to
farmland and housing complexes.

"The suspension is more like shock therapy to local people,
businesspeople and also the government following their failure to
deal with the prolonged deforestation. All sides have yet to
realize that the forest is already in a alarming condition," said
Mubiar, also a member of the bylaw drafting team.

The media conference facilitated by the Indonesian Forum for
the Environment (Walhi) is part of a campaign for a national
moratorium on logging. West Java province is the first
administration to carry out such policy.

The suspension was imposed under a gubernatorial decree issued
on Nov. 26, 2001, which orders state-owned timber company PT
Perhutani and the provincial forestry unit to stop industrial
logging from March 2002.

The decree allows the logging only of teak but not from the
preserved forests.

Under regional autonomy, the provincial administration has
taken full control of the province's forests from state-owned PT
Perhutani in the light of rampant illegal logging and intensive
conversion of forest areas into agricultural land and housing
complexes. That has caused flooding and landslides in critical
areas of the province, including Bandung, the provincial capital.

It aims to convert 40 percent of the barren areas into
conservation areas by 2010.

Husein said the forested areas in the province had halved from
1.5 million hectares in the 1970s to 770,000 hectares in the
1990s. Some 70 percent of the remaining forest was damaged due to
rapid population growth in the province.

The presence of villas and housing compounds in the Puncak
mountain resort, a protected forest located in Bogor and Cianjur
regencies, and the overflowing Citarum river in the province have
also contributed to the recent flooding in Jakarta.

The issuance of the decree was forced by the indigenous people
who believe that 45 percent to 55 percent of the province's 4.4
million square kilometer area should be covered by forest.

In the indigenous people's declaration, titled Manglayang
Demands, the residents point out that they want to designate the
forest as a resource for their livelihood and culture and also,
to maintain sustainable forest development and economic growth.

Former West Java governor Solihin GP, who is also member of
the People's Consultative Assembly, said that business-oriented
Perhutani no longer managed the forest.

"The moratorium is essential to rehabilitate the forest. The
loggers, who lost their jobs, can change profession to become
helpers who reforest the province," he said.