Indonesia issues 21 new forest concessions
Copyright 2000 Reuters
November 22, 2000
JAKARTA - Indonesia, long criticised for the plundering of its vast rain forests, on Monday said it would open up more jungle to loggers. Indonesia, desperate to raise revenue for its ravaged economy, has about 140 million hectares (350 million acres) of rain forest, second only to Brazil. Almost half the amount is under logging concessions.
"We will issue 70 forest concessions. Some 21 are new concessions. The remaining 49 are given to timber firms to extend their existing concessions which expire in December," Soegeng Widodo, Director General of Forest Production and Utilisation, told reporters.
Most of the concessions are held by conglomerates. Barito Pacific , one of the biggest, holds about 2.7 million hectares.
Conservationists have accused loggers of of destroying huge tracts of valuable jungle and of wandering out of their concessions, often into national parks, in their search for choice trees.
They have also been charged with using fires to clear land, adding to the haze of smoke which has intermittently plagued neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.