Wood-based industry short of raw materials

Wood-based industry short of raw materials

JAKARTA (JP): The wood-based industry will face a shortage of
raw material because forest concessionaires can provide only 33.9
million cubic meters of timber a year, while the demand is
estimated at 41.2 million cubic meters, an official says.

Director General of Reforestation and Land Rehabilitation
Hendarsun Suryanda Sanusiputra said that to offset the shortage,
the remaining 7.3 million cubic meters of timber can be provided
by forests managed by indigenous people.

Hendarsun was quoted by Antara as saying in Jambi that the
shortage of raw material may rise to 29.8 million cubic meters a
year if all wood-based industrial companies operate at full
capacity.

He said that this increase, which will outpace the
productivity of forest concessionaires, will give a chance to
forests managed by indigenous people to play a bigger role in the
development of the wood-based industry.

Presently, he said, such forests -- which are located outside
forest concessionaires -- cover a total area of 776,000 hectares
and are located in 26 of the country's 27 provinces.

Such forests in Java, Hendarsun said, are among the most
developed because many wood-based companies on the island, such
as plywood factories, use timber derived from these forests.

Jambi Governor Abdurrahman Sayoeti said the development of the
wood-based industry has been so rapid that shortages of raw
material have been felt for 15 years.

He acknowledged that the negative impact caused by imbalances
between supply and demand poses problems which still have no
solution. He added that industrial timber estates, which are
expected to produce raw material for wood-based plants, developed
very slowly due to a number of technical problems and red tape.

For this reason, he said, the participation of local people
through such forestry projects is essential. Such projects
encourage not only the conservation of forests by the people but
also opens new business opportunities to them, he said.

The government claims that Indonesia presently has 144 million
hectares of forest land, of which 30 million hectares (21
percent) have been declared protected forests; 19 million
hectares (13 percent) are nature reserves and national parks; 31
million hectares (22 percent) are limited production forests; 33
million hectares (23 percent) are regular production forests; and
30 million hectares (21 percent) are convertible forests. (pwn)