Asia Times: Southeast Asia


	May 29, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Jakarta wants illegal logging on global agenda

NUSA DUA, Bali - Indonesia wants illegal logging included on the agenda of the fourth United Nations preparatory committee session of the world summit on sustainable development (PrepCom IV), being held in Nusa Dua this week.

"We will do our best to make illegal logging a global issue because Indonesia has suffered the most from rampant illegal logging," State Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim said.

To fight illegal logging, Indonesia needs support particularly from the developed nations, such as the United States, Britain, and Canada, which have so far been the major consumers of wood products, he said. The minister said he hoped that those countries would help Indonesia combat rampant illegal logging by closing their markets to illegal wood.

Combating illegal logging should top the list of the developed countries' priorities in line with their commitment to conserve tropical forests, he said.

"So long as the markets are still accepting illegal wood, we will find it hard to combat illegal logging. That's why we need to close the market," he said.

Indonesia recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Britain under which that country committed to rejecting illegal wood, he said, noting that Indonesia is planning to establish similar cooperation with other developed countries.

Indonesia's forests have become a cause for major concern because of widespread illegal logging. According to head of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment's campaign division, Longgena Ginting, tropical forests in Sumatra will disappear from the Earth's surface in five years, those in Kalimantan in 10 years, and those in Sulawesi and Papua in 15 years because of widespread illegal logging.

"This means that in a not so distant future the country will suffer a loss of US$7 billion in foreign-exchange earnings a year, and the survival of nearly 60 million people whose life depended on forests will be on the line," he said.

(Asia Pulse/Antara)