Greens Skeptical Indonesian President Can Live Up to Crack Down on Illegal Logging

Jakarta Globe 8 Apr 10;

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s call to go after the “mafia” involved in illegal logging only proves that a previous campaign has been a failure, a green group said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Yudhoyono said he had instructed the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force to investigate the possibility of organized groups involved in forestry crimes and to crush them.

But Elfian Effendi, executive director of Greenomics Indonesia, said the president’s call was simply a repetition of his own instructions five years ago.

In 2005, Yudhoyono issued a presidential instruction involving 12 ministries, the Attorney General’s Office, National Police, Army, State Intelligence Agency (BIN), governors and district heads. This instruction was meant to herald the start of a concerted campaign against illegal logging.

“This just proves that [the 2005] instruction was never carried out effectively, because for the past five years, illegal logging just kept going,” Elfian said.

“There are no visible results from the instruction, which spelled out clear obligations for ministries and agencies from the central to local governments.”

But State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta said on Thursday he was pleased with the president’s new call.

“The message is to strengthen and remind the cabinet to get serious about illegal logging because we are aiming at the ‘big players,’ ” he said. “We don’t want to chase small-scale players, for instance local villagers who are just cutting down one or two trees to build their homes. Plenty of companies that don’t have permits cut down trees. They are the ones we’re after.”

Gusti said there would be stronger coordination between ministries in this new campaign.

“But the lead will be in the hands of the Ministry of Forestry. We’ll be supporting with any data and information if requires,” he said.

Yuyun Indradi, from Greenpeace Southeast Asia, however, said it was wrong to put the responsibility on the shoulders of the Forestry Ministry because the Environment Ministry had more power.

“If you’re talking about the environment, it isn’t just forests and non-forests but a whole package,” Yuyun said.

“The Environment Ministry has a stronger legal instrument in the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law, which means it can investigate, prosecute and even arrest violators. The Forestry Ministry has lots of regulations but they don’t know which ones to enforce,” he added.

Yuyun said the task force was a waste of time.

“If SBY is serious about eradicating illegal logging then just let the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] handle forestry issues],” he said.

Yudhoyono Talks Tough on Illegal Logging
Jakarta Globe 7 Apr 10;

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday identified illegal logging as another form of entrenched corruption he wants to add to his growing list of “mafia.”

The former general talked tough about stopping the world’s fastest deforestation rates as he left for a regional summit in Vietnam where the environment looms as a key issue.

He also expressed his appreciation for the efforts of Greenpeace, which has angered powerful palm oil interests with protests that have seen some of its activists deported.

“I believe there’s a mafia in illegal logging. Our task force should be able to look into the possibility that it exists, and to stop it,” he told reporters at the airport.

“I also want to underline the importance of preserving our forests. I’ve followed Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, which are active” in criticizing forest management.

“I want to show my appreciation for their concerns, and I hope they will continue their partnership with Indonesia.”

This is not the first such proclamation by Yudhoyono. But a persistent culture of corruption within government frequently makes a mockery of his pledges to clean it up. He has labeled graft groups within the tax office and court system “mafia,” and created specialized task forces to eradicate them.

But like his frequent pronouncements about environmental responsibility, critics complain that little of substance actually gets done.

A recent study by the Center for East Asia Cooperation Studies at the University of Indonesia found that the Indonesian military was heavily involved in the illegal logging industry.

Unchecked deforestation, often to make way for palm oil plantations, makes Indonesia the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to most estimates.

US-based Human Rights Watch said in a report late last year that graft contaminated every level of the country’s logging industry, including the Ministry of Forestry.

Between 2003 and 2006, annual revenue lost to mismanagement and corruption in the timber industry was equal to total public health spending, it said. 

AFP