Widespread illegal logging to bring more drought, floods
Widespread illegal logging to bring more drought, floods
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Prolonged droughts and forest fires will continue to hit the
country during the dry season as more and more protected forests
are destroyed by illegal logging, the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment (Walhi) said on Saturday.
Walhi said flashfloods and landslides would also plague people
during the rainy season as the remaining forest would no longer
be able to absorb and hold water.
"We can't stop the impending disaster unless illegal logging
is stopped," Walhi executive director Longgena Ginting told The
Jakarta Post.
A report has said that illegal logging has been rampant in Mt.
Leuser National Park in Aceh and North Sumatra, Kerinci Seblat
National Park located in West Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, South Sumatra
and Bengkulu, Mulawarman National Park in South Kalimantan,
Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan, and Roro
Lindu in Central Sulawesi, following the economic crisis that
swept Asia in 1997.
Illegal logging has reportedly been backed by government
officials in some areas, House legislators, and some Army and
Naval officers.
Longgena said Riau, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan,
recently hit by choking haze from forest fires, remain prone to
drought and fires.
Numerous regencies in North Sumatra and Aceh are the areas
most vulnerable to major flooding, he said.
Major floods inundated four regencies in North Sumatra earlier
this year, killing five people.
Aside from natural disasters, illegal logging in protected
forests also jeopardizes endangered species.
"I think the illegal logging problem owes a lot to the
overcapacity of forest-based industries," he said.
In one year, forest-based industries need 63 million cubic
meters of wood, but the government allows concessionaires to cut
down 12 million cubic meters of trees.
"How can these industries meet their quotas if they don't buy
illegal logs," he said. "But because illegal logging has
destroyed unprotected forests, they are targeting protected
areas."
Most of the timber from illegal logging in the country has
been exported.
State Minister of Research and Technology Hatta Radjasa said
Indonesia ranked second after Brazil as the world's largest
supplier of logs to the international market, but 70 percent of
the timber came from illegal logging.
Koes Saryadi, spokesman for the Ministry of Forestry, said
that various natural disasters would remain a real threat to the
country due to illegal logging in protected forests.
Therefore, the ministry would continue to fight illegal
logging through their cooperation with governments of countries
that have imported illegal logs and their derivative products, he
said.
Indonesia has cooperated with China and Japan to curb illegal
logging and the trade of illegal logs.
Saryadi said his ministry would arrest those involved in
illegal logging, but that would not be effective if they did not
have the locals' support.
For example, he said, when forest rangers confiscated illegal
logs in Kerinci National Park, the locals tried to burn down the
rangers' office.
"It will also depend on the efforts from other state
institutions, such as the National Police, the Attorney General's
Office and judges, to enforce the law," he said.
Under Law No. 41/1999 on forestry, anyone convicted of
activities linked to illegal logging, its trade or the purchase
of illegal logs could face a 10-year jail sentence and a Rp 5
billion (US$561,700) fine.
However, Longgena said that illegal logging could only be
stopped with a moratorium on logging for at least five years.
"With a moratorium, we could easily know and arrest those who
are carrying out logging," he said.
Longgena said that a five-year moratorium would allow the
government to restructure the wood-based industry and reform the
utilization of forests.
He said that Indonesia should take a lesson from China, whose
government succeeded in implementing a ten-year logging
moratorium in the early 1980s.