West Kalimantan unable to halt illegal logging

West Kalimantan unable to halt illegal logging

Bambang Bider, Pontianak, The Jakarta Post

I was sitting at a food stall somewhere in Jagoi, Jagoi Babang
district, Bengkayang sub-district, West Kalimantan, some four
kilometers from the border between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Against the noisy background of the repatriation of Indonesian
migrant workers from Malaysia, I caught sight of something
strange some 12 meters away from the stall, still on the
Indonesian side of the border area: Logs were being loaded onto a
Volvo truck bearing a Malaysian license number plate.

The food stall owner, Jessil, looked nervous when I inquired
about the truck but said that it was a common sight there. He
said such a truck could arrive at the Indonesian area of Jagoi
three or four times a day, to illegally carry timber to Sarikin,
Malaysia, a practice that had already gone on over the past three
years. The wood came not only from Jagoi but also from as far
afield as Sambas and Pontianak regency, he added.

"The truck owner is Sugeng. He comes from Landak regency and
has a wife from Sarikin. He runs a sawmill in Sarikin with some
locals," Jessil said.

Strangely, the local customs office and police have done
practically nothing about this smuggling, which has gone on
almost every day for the past three years, although the smuggling
site is about 8 kilometers (km) away from the local -- Seluas --
police station and the local customs office.

In the border area of Entikong and Tebedu, timber smuggling is
increasingly rife and openly practiced. Timber from logging in
West Kalimantan can easily be sold in Sarawak every day.

Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 9, 2003, members of Commission B on
forestry from the West Kalimantan legislative assembly made a
working visit to Entikong border checkpoint, located in
Indonesia's Sanggau district and Malaysia's Sarawak. They found
that every day some 50,000 cubic meters of timber from West
Kalimantan was smuggled into Malaysia, through Entikong.

Records show that between early November 2002 and Jan. 8,
2003, about 4,700 truckloads of timber were smuggled to Sarawak,
according to secretary of Commission B of West Kalimantan
legislative assembly Naib Tappi.

Accompanied by two staff members from West Kalimantan forestry
service, Tappi went on to say that although the timber smuggling
had a simple pattern, local authorities were as yet unable to
stop it.

Timber smuggled by truck through Entikong comes from illegal
logging in West Kalimantan regencies, with timber estates in
Ketapang, Pontianak, Landak, Bengkayang, Sanggau, Sintang and
Kapuas Hulu.

A truck carrying timber can leave Entikong against a payment
of Rp 600,000 to Rp 800,000 to a self-styled timber association
from the Sanggau regency chapter of the traditional community
(APMA). When the timber arrives in Sarawak, it is kept
temporarily in the open air some 4 km away from the Tebedu border
area. Here, it is given a legalization stamp by the company
purchasing it. Then it will be sold to Malaysian companies.

Ironically, Malaysia's envoy to Indonesia Dato' Rastam M. Isa,
when visiting West Kalimantan in connection with the smuggling of
Malaysian-made automobiles into this province, denied knowledge
of this timber smuggling.

But the ambassador's statement received a skeptical response
from member of Commission B of West Kalimantan legislative
council Riza Munawar, who said that illegal logging in West
Kalimantan made a significant contribution to the timber business
in Malaysia.

Munawar is convinced that collusion exists between officials
and businesspeople of the two countries. He said there had to be
a timber-smuggling syndicate operating in the area.

Timber smuggling to Malaysia is inseparable from illegal
logging that has long been "condoned" by the West Kalimantan
authorities.

The HPHH forest concession policy was introduced after the
start of the reform movement began, while the implementation of
regional autonomy has only worsened the timber sector. The
locals, who in the past 32 years could only watch the depletion
of their natural resources by the central government, have
exploited whatever remains of these resources, therefore bringing
about a dilemma in natural resources management in this region.

Ding Paraan, 32, an illegal logger in Betung Kerihun National
Park, Kapuas Hulu Regency, said, "We have collected only what
remains around our fields." He works with a cooperative in
Putusibau to market the timber but sometimes sells it directly to
the largest timber company in Pontianak.

Illegal logging has made West Kalimantan liable to a variety
of natural disasters like flooding and haze. This illegal
practice also reflects the delinquency of some local companies.

Data compiled by studies on illegal logging and illegal
sawmills in West Kalimantan carried out by an investigation team
led by Gusti Hardiansyah of the School of Forestry, Tanjungpura
University, shows that 80 percent of the timber obtained from
illegal logging was sold to Malaysia and only the remaining 20
percent to local buyers.

As a result, the forest in West Kalimantan is becoming
endangered. The investigation team said, as a result of its
study, that the remaining forested areas, including former
logging areas, measured only 6,312,314 hectares (ha). Meanwhile,
according to the 1997 data complied by the Ministry of Forestry,
forested areas in West Kalimantan shrank by 20 percent between
1985 and 1997, from 8,700,6000 ha to 6,713,016 ha. Kompas daily,
of Nov. 16, 2000, wrote that the forested areas in West
Kalimantan had shrunk at a rate of 165,631 ha per year.

Chief of the West Kalimantan police command center for
operational control Sr. Comr. Wayan T. Budhijaja said that the
provincial police had carried out special operations that
involved civilian investigators and forest rangers between 2000
and 2002. Unfortunately, no loggers had been detained, let alone
taken to court.

Assistant for general crimes at West Kalimantan provincial
prosecutor's office Toyib Saman said that only a few illegal
logging cases had been taken to court, while illegal logging was
on the increase.

Often, he said, community and customary leaders were involved
in illegal logging, leading to a duality of interest in their
attitude toward measures against illegal logging. Another
constraint was that there was no proper storage place at which to
hold confiscated illegal timber.

One of the members of Tanjungpura University investigation
team Gusti Hardiansyah said that smugglers involved many parties
in their activities, including community members and people from
government agencies. The collusion between provincial bodies,
timber bosses and community members played a key role in the
illegal business, he said.

A field observation that the team has made shows that to
ensure that these practices run smoothly, timber bosses and
officials from the authorities concerned collude to protect each
other. The bosses, for example, pay money (sopoi, in the local
language) to officials in charge of places through which illegal
timber has to pass. The owner of a truckload of smuggled, illegal
timber from Sintang to Entikong has to pay money to the officials
in charge at Sanggau, Simpang Tanjung and Entikong. If you go
from Sintang to Pontianak, you have to bribe those in charge at
Sanggau, Simpang Tanjung, Ngabang, Senakin, Mandor, Anjungan,
Sungai Pinyuh and Jungkat.

Clearly, this neat arrangement ensures that it is unlikely
that any of those involved in the smuggling of illegal timber
will ever be arrested.