Illegal loggers: Shoot them, Jakarta says
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Indonesia can no longer be accused of not taking illegal logging
seriously. Amid accusations from environmental groups and the country's Forest
Ministry that Indonesia has not done enough to tackle the problem, Environment
Minister Nabiel Makarim said in Kuala Lumpur last week that under a new law the
crime of illegal logging would become a capital offense.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri introduced the law, the first in independent
Indonesia ever to prescribe the death penalty as punishment for a crime of
commerce. Although it could take months before it is passed by the House of
Representatives (DPR), it will be preceded by a temporary law signed by the
president.
Greenpeace has slammed illegal logging as a global catastrophe that fuels civil
wars, undermines regional security, involves human-rights abuses, causes
biodiversity loss, and contributes to deforestation and climate change.
According to the Ministry of Forestry, rampant illegal logging cost the state
some Rp355.8 billion (US$33 million) in 2002 and 2003.
The World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch and Forest Watch Indonesia
estimate that Indonesia loses some 2.6 million hectares of natural forest every
year, most of which is cut down illegally, threatening the remaining 40 million
hectares. The Indonesian Association of Forestry Companies (APKI) estimates
that during the past few years illegal logging has also caused the closure of
more than 300 companies in the timber-processing industry, due to decreases in
supply.
The government has launched several crackdowns and prosecuted some guilty
loggers, but illegal-logging cases investigated by police in the first quarter
of 2004 have almost doubled compared with the same period of 2003. Given that
capital punishment is carried out by firing squad, there may be a need for a
lot of bullets.
Police investigated 246 cases involving 169 suspects in the first quarter of
the year, up from 125 cases in the same period in 2003, national police
director of special crimes Brigadier-General Suharto said last month.
Suharto said the increase in illegal-logging cases showed that police efforts
alone were not enough and required the support of other agencies such as
customs and excise, forestry, the military and local administrations. Only 30
of some 150 cases of illegal logging filed in 2003 were actually investigated.
The Forestry Ministry suspects thousands of other cases were never reported.
Many of the illegally cut logs and timber products are smuggled to Singapore,
China and Malaysia, where the wood is allegedly "laundered" for the export
market. Malaysia has accused Indonesia of maliciously attempting to slander its
wood-product industries, which generate some $1.5 billion annually in export
revenues.
Malaysia's primary industries minister said, "I'm angry and running out of
patience with Indonesia. They are not doing anything, and their agency is
pointing the finger at us." He was referring to a call for a worldwide boycott
of both Indonesian and Malaysian wood products by the Indonesian Forum for the
Environment, which, like other environmental groups, says Jakarta is simply not
doing enough.
Kuala Lumpur says Indonesians, not Malaysians, drive the timber-smuggling trade
in the country, and because the timber enters Malaysia illegally, it is not the
country's responsibility.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian
non-governmental organization Telapak collectively take the view that Jakarta
has sought to make political capital out of exposing Malaysia's role in
laundering illegal timber. While this is partly understandable, it is also a
ploy to deflect attention from Indonesia's abject failure to tackle illegal
logging and enforce its own forestry laws, say EIA and Telapak spokespersons.
Though several laws and regulations on sustainable forest management exist at
the central and regional government levels, Minister of Forestry M Prakosa has
blamed the lack of law enforcement, particularly on the part of the police and
the navy, for the scale of the illegal logging. Port authority agents and local
government officials have also been implicated.
Prakosa has advocated a complete logging moratorium, though most regional
governments oppose this. Still, the minister deserves credit for his fight to
restructure the forestry sector drastically by removing many of the sacred
privileges gained under ex-president Suharto's New Order regime, when the
country's forests were exploited to the hilt to reap as much foreign exchange
as possible.
Pulp production increased exponentially during the country's rapid growth
period throughout the early 1990s, but the timber fueling this growth was cut
from virgin natural forests and rainforests. Timber from plantations, most of
which is taken from these natural forests, can supply only about 20% of
domestic demand for wood from the country's pulp plants, sawmills and plywood
factories, which is in excess of 80 million cubic meters per annum.
The ministry has attempted to preserve the forests by gradually lowering
logging quotas from 6.5 million cubic meters in 2003 to 5.74 million cubic
meters this year. At the same time, domestic timber and pulp-and-paper
companies are being pressured to address inter-related issues such as
biodiversity and the livelihoods of indigenous communities.
Next year the quota will be set at 5.45 million cubic meters, and Transtoto
Handadhari, a spokesperson for the Forestry Ministry, said it is expected that
in "several years to come", the quota will be down to only 2 million cubic
meters per year.
That decision has sparked protests from industry players who claim the industry
needs 30 million to 40 million cubic meters of timber per year. The government
has urged the industry to lower this capacity to 20 million cubic meters per
year to cope with the declining supply of local raw materials.
The huge gap between actual timber demand and the national logging quota
explains why unchecked illegal logging has spread across the archipelago. But
illegal logging, most of it on the big islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan and
Papua, also feeds an equally rampant and illegal global timber trade. If
illegal loggers cannot market their logs or timber freely, the enterprise
becomes much less profitable, or commercially unfeasible.
Greenpeace has persistently campaigned for market-based solutions by pressuring
US and European importers to suspend purchases of Indonesian timber in the hope
of prompting strong action from Jakarta. However, forestry-related products are
still major export earners, last year contributing about $4 billion in
foreign-exchange revenue.
The Indonesian Wood Panel Association points out that the price of such
products has shot up considerably due to the continually diminishing supply.
The price of plywood in the United States has soared from $240 to $500 per
cubic meter. The price of wood panel has risen to $350 per meter, from $230,
and short fiber pulp now costs $500 per tonne, up by $100 from the start of the
year.
European Union environment ministers have also requested that the European
Commission act "without delay" and implement legislation to control imports of
illegal timber. Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace and Earth Justice have
all demanded trade sanctions from the US State Department over the illegal
trade in timber.
The National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), an influential military
think-tank, has called on the government to establish an armed task force to
combat illegal logging, mining and poaching. Lemhanas estimates the combined
losses due to illegal logging, illegal fishing and illegal sand and fuel
smuggling come to more than $8 billion a year. This is almost 40% of the
expected domestic revenue for the year, and is three times as large as the
amount allocated to servicing foreign debt.
After amendments to last year's Anti-Money Laundering Law, a joint initiative
was launched in March by Indonesia's Financial Transaction and Report Analysis
Center (PPATK) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Under the initiative PPATK is authorized to analyze and investigate reports of
suspicious transactions and of persons and financial institutions that fail to
report suspicious transactions. Meanwhile, CIFOR, based in Bogor, West Java,
will use its large global network to help sniff out those companies and
individuals engaging in illegal logging and other forest crimes. This will make
it very difficult for businesses and individuals to launder money from illegal
logging profits through banks.
Last weekend, less than 48 hours before the country's first-ever direct
presidential elections, Amien Rais became the first candidate to make illegal
logging a poll issue by pledging to stop rampant deforestation if he becomes
the next president. But it is President Megawati, currently trailing ex-General
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in presidential polls, who may be the one to gain fame
as the first modern world leader to introduce the death penalty for a crime of
commerce.
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