New Government Clampdown on Illegal Logging
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
September 14, 2000
By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Sep 14 (IPS) - The overproduction capacity of Indonesia's pulp and paper industry and pressure by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to allow log exports have aggravated illegal logging in the country, critics here say.
As a result of this trend, the government is losing about 10 million U.S. dollars in potential revenues monthly, according to forestry offiiclals.
Jakarta is now preparing legislation to ban log exports indefinitely. State environment minister Sonny Keraf says the government will soon form an inter-ministry task force that involves forestry, military and justice officials.
''The mismatch between the installed production capacity of the wood industry and the ability of Indonesian forests to provide raw materials at a sustainable level has resulted in exploitation and destruction of forest natural resources,'' said forest economist E.G. Togu Manurung.
Indeed, official figures show a discrepancy between the amount of logs Indonesia's forests can produce and what the pulp industry can process -- raising the question of where the remaining logs are coming from.
Likewise, some say worries over illegal logging are not helped by the International Monetary Fund's promotion of log exports, as part of economic reforms designed to have Indonesia earn more foreign exchange and help pull it out of its economic crisis.
They argue that the export of logs has depressed local log supply, forcing producers of pulp and paper to engage in illegal logging to meet raw material demand. Critics add that this is also encouraging small-time unlicensed loggers to fell more trees for exports.
''The Letter of Intent (the economic programme signed by Indonesia and IMF) is man-made, not made by God. If it burdens us, it has to be changed,'' said junior minister for forestry Nurmahmudi Ismail said.
The installed annual production capacity of Indonesia's pulp industry has soared over the last decade, from 515,000 tonnes in 1987 to 4.9 million tonnes in 1999.
The production of one tonne of pulp requires about four cubic metres of logs -- meaning that the total volume of logs required by the pulp industry is close to 20 million cubic metres every year.
Latest data issued by the forestry ministry office show that the total annual production capacity of Indonesia's wood industry is equivalent to 68 million cubic metres of logs. This is more than three times higher than the country's natural forests can produce, at 18 million cubic metres of logs.
Although the Indonesian government has been encouraging pulp and paper firms to put up industrial forest estates to produce the logs they need and not rely on natural forests, production from these estates have not made that much of a difference.
The foreign ministry's data show that these estates produced very little logs for the pulp industry's use, only 425,893 cubic metres or far below the industry's production capacity.
This means the industry still relies heavily on natural forests -- and analysts say the logs are coming from illegal operations. ''Natural forests, which have long been overexploited, become the sole backbone for raw material demand of the country's pulp and paper industry,'' Manurung said.
Mubariq Ahmad, a resource and environmental economist, adds that Indonesia lost no less than 1.6 million hectares of forest annually from 1985 to 1998 due to illegal logging.
The environmental degradation caused by illegal logging also contributes to the Indonesia's unfavourable climate change and rainfall pattern, which affect agriculture and forest product utilisation, says Suripto, secretary general of the junior ministry for forestry.
''Indonesia has been deeply concerned with the problem of illegal logging. Aside from endangering the forest security and sustainability, illegal logging is violating national law and regulation,'' Suripto added.
According to Suripto, illegal logging, classified as an organised crime in Indonesia, takes on many forms.
These include logging outside the defined area, cutting trees beyond the allowable limit diameter of 50 to 60 centimetres, excessive logging beyond permitted volume, logging in protection and conservation areas and by unlicensed sawmills.
Forest exploitation in Indonesia is based on a system of forest concession licenses (HPH) issued for a 20-year period.
Although they only have 20-year rights, the concessionaires, who are also producers of timber, pulp and paper, are obliged to manage the forest in 35-year cycles. They submit annual cutting plans to the regional office of the forestry ministry, which approves them and monitors compliance.
Amid questions about where their logs are coming from, pulp and paper producers deny they are involved in illegal logging to meet their huge demand for raw materials.
''Illegal loggers do not sell to us. Illegal logs are good logs and too expensive (for us). We only buy branches and rotten logs,'' said Muhammad Mansur, chair of the Association of Indonesian Pulp and Paper Producers.
He admitted, however, that industrial forest estates owned by the association's members could meet only 40 percent of the 22.5 million cubic metres of timber needed for pulp production a year.
''The remaining 60 percent has been met by the processing of waste material from logging operators, oil palm plantations and forest conversion activities,'' Mansur explained.
Still, suspicion continues because most illegal logging activities in Indonesia are widely believed to have the backing of members of the military and the bureaucracy.
In late May, then defense minister Juwono Sudarsono warned that inadequate state finances for the military and police would push them into supplementing their incomes by alternative means, often outside the law such as illegal logging.
Overseas demand for Indonesian logs, particularly from Asian timber companies, also spurs illegal logging.
Forestry officials say major routes through which timber is smuggled out of Indonesia include those from Jambi and Riau to peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, from West Kalimantan to Sarawak, Malaysia, from East Kalimantan to Sabah in Malaysia and from Maluku and Papua to China.
''Illegal logging activities have become organised crimes supported by foreign traders and thugs-for-hire,'' Ahmad argued.
Suripto adds there are strong indications that Indonesian logs are being exported illegally to Malaysia, China, Thailand and Hong Kong.
According to Ahmad, up to 80 percent of inputs to 1,050 wood mills in Sarawak, eastern Malaysia come illegally from Kalimantan. As for China, both the Indonesian Forestry Society and pulp producers say demand for plywood from China this year dropped by one million cubic meters compared to last year.
''Illegal logging activities in Indonesia have received international pressure,'' state environment minister Keraf said. ''Allowing log exports would make it difficult for security officers to control log smuggling activities,'' said Soedradjat Djaja, chair of the Indonesian Forestry Society.
Thomas Walton, World Bank officer for environmental issues, says Indonesia's decision to stop exporting logs is reasonable in the short term.
''In the short term, the export ban will facilitate Indonesian government to monitor wood trade, especially export activities. If exports are not allowed, it would be easier for security officers to determine that ships carrying logs out of Indonesian water territory are illegal,'' he said.