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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Irian
Jaya, Indonesia: Logging Threat Looms Over Birds' Paradise
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
2/18/96
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
western half of the island of New Guinea, invaded by Indonesia
in the
1960s, is about to face a new invasion--this time by timber
miners. Recently Indonesia's forest minister stated
he wants to
increase
logging in Irian Jaya's 41 million hectares of forests.
This
despite the intense logging already occurring, which is
having
devastating effects on the environment and local people's
livelihoods. This item was written by IPS of the econet
networks
and was
posted on an Indonesian list server.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
INDONESIA-ENVIRONMENT:
Logging Threat Looms Over Birds' Paradise
By Pratap Chatterjee
JAYAPURA,
Indonesia, Feb 6 (IPS) - High up in the alpine forests
on the
island of New Guinea in the South Pacific, a group of black
and
white kangaroos live in trees -- a different scene to that in
Australia,
where the mammals are at home on the ground.
Look
further, and birds of paradise -- with feathers that have
graced
the heads of royalty for centuries -- can be spotted in the
lowland
swamp forests. Also to be found is the aggressive and
unusual
bird-eating spider, as well as fish that spit gobs of
water
to catch insects.
Environmental
activists warn the days of these beautiful and
unique
creatures may be numbered because the Jakarta government --
concerned
about a shortage of timber wood -- is encouraging
Indonesian
logging companies to chop down the forests, the largest
in
Asia, and worldwide, second only to the Amazon.
The
western half of this bird-shaped island is called Irian Jaya
by the
Indonesian government which has controlled it for the past
34
years (the other half is the independent country of Papua New
Guinea
- PNG). Local people often prefer to use the name West
Papua
for the Indonesian half.
Last
week Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo, Indonesia's forest minister,
told a
government commission in Jakarta, that he will encourage
forest
concessionaries to step up their logging of the 41 million
hectares
of Irian Jaya's forests, which represent almost 30 per
cent of
Indonesia's total forested land.
"The
concessionaries in Irian Jaya are presently either inactive
or have
had their licenses revoked," says the minister, expressing
concern
that Indonesia's plywood mills face timber shortages which
may
force the country to import wood this month.
Activists
say this could place at risk many of the estimated
100,000
insect species, 16,000 plant species, 3,000 fish species,
643
bird species (including 36 of the 42 types of birds of
paradise
known), 800 different types of spiders, and numerous
amphibians,
reptiles and mammals.
They
also say that increased logging will threaten the lives of
the 1.3
million people who depend on the forests for their
survival.
The forest people make up four out of five members of
the
region's population and represent some 250 distinct cultures.
"The
destruction of the forests (will turn) the lives of thousands
of
forest peoples into a tragic situation," says Martin Patay,
from
the Rural Community Development Foundation, known here as
YPMD
after the Indonesian acronym of its name.
Statistics
from the Irian Jaya Province Forestry Service show that
there
are already 68 forestry concessions in Irian which generated
1.3
million cubic metres of wood in 1992-93, three times the rate
a
decade ago. Indonesia's total estimated log production was 26.5
million
cubic metres for 1992.
Government
promotional material states that 100 of the 1,000 tree
species
on Irian have commercial value. The government says that
the
"minimum annual allowable cut" (the government also sets a
maximum
level) is now 3.9 million cubic metres.
Ironwood
- an insect-free hardwood, sago - a softwood, and rattan
are
some of the woods the government is promoting to be cut.
Jakarta
is also offering licences for new sawmills and pulp mills
in
Irian. Sawmill licences are no longer issued on any other of
Indonesia's
islands.
But
current logging practices are already taking their toll on
local
people, say activists.
"The
shape of this island is rather like a cassowary bird. For the
Mee
people who live in Nabire -- that's roughly where the neck of
the
bird would be -- say it takes them three to five days to find
tree
kangaroos or wildboar. In the past it only took them half a
day,"
says one activist.
Patay
says the Wooi farmers of Yapen island, which is north of
Nabire,
have discovered that the taro plant -- a food staple --
has
recently begun decreasing in size which they blame on the
erosion
that has resulted from widespread logging on their lands.
The
Topo people, who live in Nabire, make similar complaints.
"To
substitute, the people have to pay 50 cents a kilo for rice.
For a
family of five this means 22.70 dollars a month which is
almost
all the average local wage of 32.80 dollars," he says.
Logging
has also had an impact on local health. The Taja people
who
live close to this capital city of Irian Jaya, use some 100
kinds
of plants for home remedies. Logging by Yon Lom Sari, a
South
Korean-Indonesian joint venture, has destroyed many of these
plants,
they say.
"Today
our forests are taken by the companies, tomorrow our lands
will
also be taken," Patay quotes a Mee elder saying. That view is
shared
by many of the indigenous communities from these forests
who
continue to fight the Indonesian timber companies.
In
protest, Wooi people in Yapen chopped down a board put up by
Yapen
Utama Timber to prevent people from cultivating the
deforested
area.
But the
army and the government have taken action to stop these
protests.
Moi
people of Sorong in the "Bird's Head Peninsula" were jailed in
September
1993 for protesting against logging by
Intimpura, an
Indonesian
company; and Taja people were attacked by army troops
when
they uprooted trees planted by Yon Lim Sari.
Despite
similar protests on other islands of Indonesia like the
Moluccas
and Sumatra, every year between one and 1.3 per cent of
Indonesia's
forests are cleared.
Logging
companies do pay a percentage of their income to the
government
for reforestation but some 20 million hectares have
already
been lost. These areas have become wastelands of
"alang-alang"
-- a tough grass that prevents reforestation.
However,
a mere four per cent of logged areas had been reforested
by
1990. (END/IPS/AP-EN/PC/CPG/96)
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