Indonesia to Auction Three Million Hectares of Forest
1/6/99
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Title: Indonesia to Auction Three Million Hectares of Forest
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 1/6/99
JAKARTA - Indonesia will auction next month concession rights to carry
out logging activities in three million hectares of forests, the
Jakarta Post newspaper reported on Saturday.
It quoted Waskito Soerjodibroto, director-general of the utilisation
of production forests, as saying the logging rights on offer would be
those which formerly belonged to companies whose licences had not been
extended or had been suspended for breaching logging regulations.
"God willing, the auction will be held in January. We are currently
preparing the names of timber companies and cooperatives qualified to
participate in the auction," Soerjodibroto was quoted as saying on
Wednesday.
He said the auction would mark a change in the government's policy in
granting forest concession rights to investors. Presently, companies
entitled to carry out logging operations are directly appointed by the
government.
The paper said under the new regulation, each concessionaire would be
limited to a maximum of 100,000 hectares of forests in a province.
Concessionaires would be allowed to manage other forest areas in other
province, but the total area under their management could not exceed
400,000 hectares.
Soerjodibroto was quoted as saying some of the forest areas controlled
by big timber groups such as Kayu Lapis Indonesia, Barito Pacific ,
Kalimanis Group and Djajanti would be included among those offered to
the public.
Kalimanis group is owned by Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, a golf partner and
close associate of former Indonesian President Suharto.
The paper said Indonesia earlier planned to introduce the auction
system for forest concessions by the end of July to comply with a
reform agenda agreed with the International Monetary Fund.
The plan was rescheduled until the end of this year.
At least 42 companies are currently involved in logging activities on
51.5 million hectares of forests, the paper said. It gave no further
details.
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.