Title: Indonesia Fails to Halt Illegal Logging, Environmental Group Says 
Source: (c) 2000 DPA 
Date: July 27, 2000 

JAKARTA, July 27-Indonesia is reneging on pledges to foreign donors to halt illegal logging in its national parks, which is threatening the environment and pushing several species of endangered animals toward extinction, an environmental watchdog said Wednesday.

The Jakarta government had promised donor nations and lending institutions such as The World Bank during a meeting in February that it would immediately deal with illegal logging, especially in its national parks. 

However, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international non-profit group with offices in London and Washington, issued a scathing report saying Indonesia had failed to even halt the most blatant illegal logging operations. 

The group released footage showing unlicensed sawmills and illegally- felled timber floating down streams in the Tandjung Puting National Park on Borneo. The loggers in particular go after Ramin timber, which is used to make furniture. 

Dave Currey, the director of EIA, told a press conference that the park is "a test case to see if the government has the political will to deal with illegal logging."

"If you cannot stop illegal logging in an area like Tandjung Puting, then you can't stop illegal logging at all," he said. 

Indonesian is undergoing a dramatic transformation toward democracy following 32 years of autocratic rule under former president Suharto.  As a result, the Jakarta government is fighting to wrestle control of its restive provinces, which have become mini-feifdoms for local government and military officials. 

World Bank figures estimate that Indonesia loses 1.5 million hectares of forest cover a year, mostly through illegal logging. The vast Indonesian archipelago contains 10 per cent of the world's remaining tropical forests, and at the current rate of logging, production forests will disappear within two decades, according to EIA.

Indonesia is home to around 80 per cent of the world's orangutans, and rampant logging on Borneo and Sumatra has seen their habitats shrink and population dwindle by half in the past decade to between 15,000 and 25,000.

Currey said illegal loggers had encroached on an abandoned orangutan monitoring center in north Sumatra, where researchers were studying a rare sub-species that uses tools.

But EIA environmentalists assigned blame to logging companies, timber barrons and corrupt police and military officials, saying the Jakarta government has not done enough to crack down on illegal timber production.

The group saved its most stinging criticism for Abdul Rasyid, a timber barren and politician in Borneo's central Kalimantan province, and his Tanjung Ligga company.

The company drew international condemnation in January by kidnapping and assaulting two EIA staff who attempted to make an appointment to speak with company officials at their office in Borneo. It took two days of intervention by the Jakarta government and foreign embassies for the wounded environmentalists to be freed.

EIA has accused Tanjung Ligga of rampant illegal logging in the national park, and blamed the Jakarta government for doing nothing to stop the company.

EIA officials met Tuesday with President Abdurrahman Wahid and Forestry Minister Mahmudi Ismail, during which both officials pledged their commitment to end illegal logging nationwide. Wahid reportedly took a personal interest in resolving the problem, which threatens the survival of the orangutan, Sumatran tiger and other animals, not to mention the 60 million Indonesians who depend on the forest for their livelihood.

One environmentalist said the government needed to move beyond pledges and take action to show it was serious about halting illegal logging.