10/24/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Indonesia's forests are "dying a painful death".  The opportunity to

sustainably manage this highly valuable resource for the benefit of

the country's citizens is rapidly being lost, along with one of the

most diverse and biologically important tropical rainforest expanses

on the Planet.  If ever there was a timber industry that shows no

signs of redemption, and is clearly unable to be reformed, it is the

Indonesian rainforest loggers (along with the Malaysians).  They have

brought the art of rainforest plunder to a new level of excellence. 

Seventeen million hectares of Indonesia's pristine rainforests have

been lost in 12 years, one fourth of the total Indonesian forest

cover that existed in 1985.  And for what?  Essentially nothing for

the average Indonesian and the country's betterment, and to guarantee

cheap plywood for the over-developed countries.  As the scope of

logging and ravaged rainforests expands; impending ecosystem collapse

- and resultant declines in the quality of water, air, soil and other

ecological systems - threatens to exacerbate already plummeting

standards of living and economic development potential. 

 

However, all is not lost.  Indonesia's rainforests are still vast -

and given a reprieve from grossly over- intensive and extensive

management by "legal" logging and criminal "illegal" logging - both

which drastically overcut - there is still a chance to halt the

rampant deforestation, manage forests for the benefit of community

development in a certifiably environmentally sensitive fashion, and

begin restoring and sustaining this biological treasure.  To do so

requires that the government take drastic and urgent measures,

following the lead of reasonable voices in Indonesia, including the

article below from the Jakarta Press, that see that the timber boom

is peaking and soon all will be lost. 

 

There are increasingly vocal calls for a ban on Indonesian rainforest

logging and a moratorium on concessions, along with rigorous

enforcement, until controls are in place that keep harvests at

reasonable levels under more sustainable management practices. 

Failure to do anything less dooms Indonesia's large, commercially and

biologically valuable rainforest expanses to extinction-and

completion of the conversion of immense, vibrant rainforests into

ecological wastelands of little value to anyone.  It is essential

that no more multi-lateral or bi-lateral aid go to reforming the

Indonesian timber industry, or for that matter buttressing the

faltering economy, until a logging moratorium and ban is in place and

real, enforced reform in forest management is underway.  The current

industry was built by Suharto's cronies for their benefit, and it is

not in the Indonesian national interest that it be maintained.  Aid

funds are being thrown down a hole, and there will be no economic

turn-around until Indonesia's ecosystem decline is ended by stopping

the rainforest plunder.  International aid should be channeled to

offsetting the economic costs associated with rationalizing the

timber industry and not towards yet another round of "reforms".

 

WHAT TO DO:

Concerned about Indonesia's rainforests?  Contact the Indonesian

embassy's political division in the United States at:

< poldiv-kbriwash@erols.com > to lend your support to local calls for

a rainforest logging ban and moratorium until necessary policy

initiatives are in place to ensure sustainable management that

benefits local communities is occurring.  Also contact Mr. Mohamad

Al-Arief (Arief) of The World Bank Resident Mission in Indonesia at

< malarief@worldbank.org > to demand that all future economic aid be

tied to implementation of a logging ban and moratorium.

g.b.

 

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

 

Title:  Call for moratorium on logging 

Source:  Copyright 2000 The Jakarta Post

Date:  October 23, 2000  

 

JAKARTA (JP): Our forest is dying a painful death.

 

Indonesia is known worldwide to be among places with the worst forest

destruction. Overcutting, illegal logging, forest fires,

monoculturalization of the natural forest, soil quality degradation,

to name but a few of the problems.

 

We no longer even ask where all the profits of this overexploitation

of our forest have gone, or how this has adversely affected the 80

million Indonesians whose livelihood directly or indirectly depend on

the forest.

 

The saddest thing is that it is unlikely the government's or the

community's outlook on the problem will change in the near future.

 

The simplest logic would tell us that illegal logging is a "natural"

occurrence due to a gap between timber supply and demand as well as

poor domestic prices of timber--which has over the years, led to

smuggling of timber abroad.

 

The government's response--such as frequent raids and arrest of the

smugglers--however, barely touches the roots of the problem because

in Indonesia it does not really matter whether logging is legal or

otherwise. What matters is the fact that both methods are leading to

an overcutting of our forest.

 

From this perspective, even "legal" felling through forest

concessions can be considered an illegal operation because it

contributes to the killing of our forest. Certainly, this holds true

if we can agree that overcutting is a crime against our natural

resources.

 

Even the natural forest conversion is also actually a part of a

systematic crime against our forest because it has been made

inseparable from the overly high demand for timber and raw material

for the pulp and paper industry.

 

The natural forest conversion is a crime against our forest, that's

what it is.

 

Unless they want to be called criminals, the forestry ministry and

the Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) must

immediately halt this robbing of the forest. They must stop natural

forest conversions until the establishment of a sustainable forest

management.

 

The root of the problem is actually simple, namely the extraordinary

increase in the capacity of the national logging industry. In 1998,

the country "consumed" a total of 78.1 million m3 of timber, while

the official timber production rate was only 21.4 million m3. This

means that 56.6 million m3 or 71 percent of the timber was from

illegal felling and other unrecorded harvest.

 

This was reportedly a long-standing situation and the forestry

ministry has always turned a blind eye to the practice.

 

Interestingly, the 1994/95 up to 1998/99 fiscal years recorded a

decline in timber production, while recording a consistent increase

in forestry upstream industries such as sawn-wood timber, plywood and

pulp.

 

Forest conversions, illegal felling and forest fires, however, are

mere symptoms. The true disease is the forest management (or

mismanagement as is the case) policy that has existed since very

early; the limited timber supply; the paper industry development

policies that have led to indiscriminate cutting of commercial

timber; and major oil palm plantations.

 

No matter how high our annual forest conversion is, the government

has never tried to curb it. Instead, the government continues to

issue new licenses for forest conversion.

 

It is also the government policies that have enabled the same

companies to operate forest concessions (HPH), timber concessions

(HTI) and other plantations simultaneously.

 

Following the 1997 economic crisis, the government issued a number of

policies that affected the rate of natural forest conversion. These

include restrictions on palm oil exports, the liberalization of

foreign investment in the sector and the conversion of 30 percent of

state forest for oil palm cultivation.

 

Indonesia has been witnessing the steadily increasing rate of natural

forest conversion, as indicated by the increased volume of timber

produced through licenses for clear-felling or indiscriminate logging

(IPK). This signified an increase in the logging industry's

dependence on indiscriminate cutting.

 

A portion of the demand is met by forest conversion whose rate is

found to be 30 percent over the national demand of timber. This may

mean either of the following: 1) the decline of our forest's capacity

and quality after more than 30 years of overexploitation or; 2) the

continued exploitation and conversion of the remaining forest.

 

With the annual timber demands standing at 65-70 million m3, we can

estimate that between 20.7 and 22.3 million m3 of the timber is

produced from forest conversion. Given that indiscriminate logging is

the most used method and modestly assuming that 20-30 m3 of timber is

produced per hectare, we can estimate the forest conversion rate to

reach 750,000 to 1.1 million hectares per year.

 

This figure is certainly far beyond the figures officially issued by

the forestry and plantations ministry because it is very possible

that illegal conversion contributes to the high rate of forest

conversion.

 

Figures, however, do not matter as importantly as the dire reality

facing us. Actions are need to save the remaining 28 percent of our

forest areas.

 

It is true we have limited alternatives: banning logging, a

moratorium on forest concessions, putting a stop to forest

conversion, closing down indebted and inefficient industries,

recognizing the people's tenurial rights, rationalizing timber

industries and establishing forest spatial zoning.

 

Let's first discuss the need to change the existing pattern of forest

exploitation. We must evaluate the forest resources that we still own

and calculate whether to continue with the consumption pattern that

is three times our forest's production capacity. This calls for a

moratorium. A total of US$3 billion income from legal felling but can

actually save US$8.5 billion worth of timber that would be lost

through illegal felling. We must be willing to do away with

inefficient and wasteful industries, and put a stop to unsustainable

logging practices and natural forest conversion.

 

Some people may consider this line of thinking "subversive" but what

are the alternatives?

 

We could refuse to take those measures because we fear ramifications

such as the collapse of the economy or unemployment but this only

delays a sure death. The maintenance of the current forest

exploitation pattern will surely lead to its eventual death and the

nightmare becoming a reality.

 

The writer is campaign coordinator of the Indonesian Environmental

Forum (Walhi). Longgena Ginting

 

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS### 

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior

interest in receiving forest conservation informational materials for

educational, personal and non-commercial use only.  Recipients should

seek permission from the source to reprint this PHOTOCOPY.  All

efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces, though ultimate

responsibility for verifying all information rests with the reader. 

For additional forest conservation news & information please see the

Forest Conservation Archives & Portal at URL= http://forests.org/ 

Networked by Forests.org, Inc., grbarry@students.wisc.edu