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)