As Indonesia's Forests Continue to Fall, Forestry Minister Says Blame Lies Elsewhere

Arti Ekawati & Nivell Rayda, Jakarta Globe 28 Apr 10;

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Wednesday tried to distance his ministry from the rash of illegal logging cases and the so-called logging mafia, saying they also involved rogue provincial officials and legislators.

“Don’t blame it on the Ministry of Forestry because the ministry only processes requests from district governments,” Zulkifli said at a meeting of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.

“There is a whole process that needs to be gone through. After the district makes a request, an Environmental Impact Analysis is conducted and the House of Representatives issues a permit. The best we can do [to combat illegal logging] is to revoke logging permits.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told the task force to focus on illegal logging because of the environmental damage and lost income involved.

The president also has told the task force to evaluate the legal process involved in combating illegal logging, as well as allegations of bribery in the logging permit process.

The task force took a special interest in a 2008 case in Riau.

Riau Police dropped their investigation of 14 pulp and paper companies after 22 months of work, saying there was a lack of evidence.

Environmental groups claimed the decision was an indication the government was not serious about tackling illegal logging.

According to estimates from Jikalahari, a forest protection network, the country lost Rp 2.8 trillion ($310 million) from the activities of the 11 companies involved in the investigation.

Task force secretary Denny Indrayana said it was examining the decision to drop the case.

“We will look at anomalies, especially if we feel that the police had enough of a case to continue to prosecution. However, we need clear evidence that bribery occurred,” he said.

Zulkifli said such cases were common. “The government has lost so many cases. Our burden had been eased now that the task force is examining the legal process,” the minister said. “In 10 years only one major company was found guilty but law enforcers did not try to execute the court sentence.”

Mas Achmad Santosa, a task force member, said the ministry needed to review existing regulations that overlapped and contradicted other regulations.

“There has to be transparency in the permit process and an effective system to take public complaints and evaluate irregular permits,” he said.

Zulkifli said another problem was that many heads of subdistricts did not understand the issues involved.

“Up until now, about two million hectares [of forest] have been illegally encroached upon by mines and plantations,” he said.

Zulkifli said his ministry was probing a big case in Padang Lawas, North Sumatra.

Activists warn that continued illegal logging could spell an environmental disaster for the country. Indonesia has 42 million hectares of primary forest, 40 million hectares of degraded forest and 48 million hectares of irretrievably damaged forest areas. 


Forest of Problems Hinders Illegal Logging Fight
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 28 Apr 10;

The illegal logging cases in Riau in 2008 are an indicator of widespread forestry-related crimes in a country where for years an estimated four of five trees were allegedly cut down illegally with the sanction of officials and law enforcers, activists say.

The activists filed a report on April 22 with the Judicial Mafia Task Force, saying the illegal logging cases in Riau involving 14 paper and pulp companies were suspended by the police in 2008 due to lack of evidence. The contentious legal decision sparked anger among activists at the time. Located on Sumatra, Riau has the most extensively degraded forests in the country, mostly due to industrial and urban development.

Hapsoro, program director at environmental group Telapak, said on Tuesday that illegal logging has continued to spread.

“The difference [in the scale of illegal logging in specific areas] depends on the range of forest cover and also the quality of the wood,” Hapsoro said. “For instance, on Java Island, forest coverage is not that vast and timber values are not also worth much, so not many loggers would eye Java Island,” he said.

“[Illegal logging] threats are actually threatening eastern parts [of the country], such as Papua or Sulawesi, because of lack of monitoring and supervision in the areas results in loggers being able to conduct their operations freely,” he said.

However, he said Java still played a part in the trade. It serves as the main gateway to receive illegally logged timber through ports at Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya.

Data from various environmental groups shows that between 2000 and 2004, the illegal logging rate in Indonesia stood at a staggering 80 percent, meaning that four out of five trees cut down were cut down illegally. Indonesia’s forest losses hit the roof during this period of time, reaching around 2.8 million hectares per year.

In 2005, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a crackdowns on illegal loggers in Papua. The operations, dubbed collectively the Hutan Lestari Operation II, utilized 1,500 personnel with a budget of Rp 12 billion ($1.3 million) and identified 186 suspects, comprised of 172 Indonesians, 13 Malaysians and a Korean, and secured almost 400,000 cubic meters of illegally harvested timber. But only 13 suspects — none of them major players — were convicted. The toughest punishment handed out was a two-year prison sentence for one of the offenders.

Julian Newman, campaign director at the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: “It would be good to re-examine the evidence including the reason for stopping the case. But the [Mafia Eradication] Task Force should not be restricted to Riau. Other cases include the suspicious acquittal of Adelin Lis.”

Adelin is believed to be the owner of a palm oil company linked to illegal logging and suspected of money laundering.

There are many laws relating to forest management and the timber industry in the country. Felling trees is not allowed in protected areas, logging can only take place in authorized areas within forest concessions and export of raw logs is banned.

“It is when these laws are broken that illegal logging is said to occur. The main problem is that relevant forestry laws only usually catch the people at the bottom of the chain, such as chainsaw operators or truck drivers. The powerful people behind illegal logging are not touched, although there have been efforts to use anti-money laundering and corruption laws against them, but so far with little success,” Hapsoro said.

He stressed that curbing illegal logging required “good governance starting from local to central governments.”

“Such efforts involve a lot of people, starting from villages, subdistricts, districts, central governments and even the police force.”

“It also doesn’t just revolve around the forestry sector but also [involves] trade and commerce agencies, customs and even politicians and political parties because illegal logging has high value, so no wonder that members of the House of Representatives are also involved. Illegal logging is very political,” he said. “As long as there is no good intention to deal with this issue then illegal logging will just keep on going.”

Mas Achmad Santosa, an environmental law expert, said that the definition on illegal logging was clear, although there were differences between the 1999 Law on Forestry and the 2009 Law on Environmental Protection and Management Law.

“The forestry law is much more lenient than the environmental law, which has stricter sanctions on corporate crimes and acknowledges corporate crimes in this case” he said. “However, on the implementation level coordination [to uphold these laws] has not gone anywhere, for instance, between prosecutors and investigators.”

There was also the problem of judges’ understanding of the definition of forests, with most of them considering forests as “just standing trees” and not as natural resources with economic or aesthetic value.

Over 2 million hectares of forests illegally shifted to plantations
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 28 Apr 10;

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Wednesday that over 2 million hectares of forests had been converted illegally into oil palm plantations in the country.

Zulkifli made the statement during his meeting with the Anti Judiciary Mafia Task Force at the forestry ministry’s office.

He said that the illegal plantations firms were operated both in protected forests and conservation areas.

“We have mapped the areas of illegal plantations operated in forest areas,” he told the task force.

Task force head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto with all members attended the meeting.

Minister warned that any delay of law enforcement on the illegal oil palm plantations would further accelerate forest damages.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the task force to root out mafia in forestry sector.