Asia Times: Jakarta, London fight illegal logging


	April 26, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Jakarta, London fight illegal logging

JAKARTA - Indonesia and Britain have agreed to fight the trade in illegal logs and wood products that is rapidly destroying Indonesia's rain forests, Forestry Minister M Prakosa said here on Wednesday.

The two countries plan to develop, test and implement a system to verify the legality of logs and wood products using a tested identification and tracing method, he said. The application of the system is expected significantly to reduce the trade in illegal logs and the products derived from them, the minister said in a statement on the results of a recent visit to Europe.

In 1999, the European Union imported 10 million cubic meters of tropical wood, half of which came from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, Prakosa said, adding that half of the tropical-wood imports came from illegal sources. Britain itself imported 1.6 million cubic meters of tropical wood worth US$200 million, mostly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, in 1999. About 60 percent of the wood was from illegal sources. The British market absorbs one-fifth of the total tropical-wood exports to the EU, Prakosa said.

He said a team from Britain would come to Indonesia around June to prepare an action plan for the fight against illegal logs and wood products. He said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) Indonesia and Britain would sign to formalize their cooperation in the eradication of illegal log and wood-products trade would be the first of its kind in the world. "We are ready to sign similar MoUs with other countries either as producers or consumers," he said.

Prakosa said Indonesia and the British Federation of Wood Trade had agreed not to seek instant profits from illegal log trading but rather to go for reasonable and long-term profits.

About 43 million hectares of forests in Indonesia have been degraded by illegal logging and irresponsible management by forest concessionaires, he said. The cost of reforestation has reached Rp5 million ($530) per hectare, Prakosa said.

(Asia Pulse/Antara)