Indonesia probes massive forest corruption: official

Yahoo News 20 May 10;

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) – Indonesia's anti-graft commission is investigating rampant corruption in the forestry sector that has cost the state more than 100 billion dollars, an official said Thursday.

Corruption Eradication Commission deputy chairman Mohammad Jasin said investigators had found "indications of violations" of forestry rules by 470 companies, mainly miners, operating in Indonesian Borneo.

Deforestation and rampant illegal logging is the main reason Indonesia is the world's third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for man-made global warming.

"They misused forest permits, chopped down trees for wood without replanting, destroyed forests for mining activities and avoided tax payments, among other breaches," Jasin said.

"These violations cost the state more than 1,000 trillion rupiah (110 billion dollars)," he added.

Corruption "permeates every level" of the forestry sector, he said.

"Those with power take advantage of the weak forestry regulations and local government officials who are supposed to supervise the forests take bribes from plantation companies," he said.

"It's hard to catch corruptors because supervision costs a lot of money. The forests are vast and we need helicopters and expensive equipment to check illegal practices on the ground."

Forestry ministry official Masyhud said a "big percentage" of companies granted permits to use forest resources had broken laws designed to limit damage to the environment and protect endangered species.

"Many of these permits were issued by local governments, not the ministry. The permit holders illegally cleared land for plantation and mining activities and carried out illegal logging," he said.

A report by a coalition including the BlueGreen Alliance and the Rainforest Action Network released in the United States this month found that 40 to 55 percent of Indonesia's timber is illegally harvested.

It warned that 98 percent of the archipelago's lowland forests could be gone by 2022.

Violations of forest permits cause losses of Rp 1,000t to state
The Jakarta Post 20 May 10;

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is investigating alleged violations of forest permits that have reportedly cost the state more than Rp 1,000 trillion (US$110 billion).

KPK deputy chairman Mohammad Jasin said in Jakarta on Wednesday the violations ranged from the misuse of forest permits for other activities such as logging, to conducting mining operations in forest areas without proper licenses from the Forestry Ministry.

Jasin said the anticorruption agency had found indications that many plantation companies paid bribes to local administration officials to enable them to carry out illegal practices, such as using forest areas for other purposes.

“Many companies that received permits to use forest areas for plantations did not carry out their plantation activities. They only took the wood and left,” he said.

Jasin said that as many as 470 coal mining permit holders were also involved in the destruction of forest areas because they carried out mining operations without proper licenses.

According to the forestry law, a mining company is required to obtain a license from the Forestry Ministry to carry out mining activities in forest areas even if the areas are located in their concessions.

Jasin also said that many forest concession holders avoided their tax payments.

The findings indicated that about one-third of the 2.3 million hectares of forest areas granted to be use as plantations were not used in accordance with the permits.

He said that 79 forest concession holders in Riau were found to have violated their permits. The companies, for example, carried out logging activities but left the area without conducting rehabilitation programs such as replanting the areas as required by the regulation, he said.

“It shows that these forest concession holders only want the wood from our forests and these kinds of activities violated their permits,” Jasin said.

The findings from the KPK investigation, which is expected to be finished by the end of this year, also indicate the weakness of forestry regulations and systems and the lack of the credibility on the part of the forestry and local government officials involved in the supervision of the forests.

“For example, the commission found that a one forest concession area overlapped with another because the officials in charge issued the permit without a prior survey,” he said.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan says he supports the KPK’s allegations on the misuse of forest permits.
Zulkifli said that 6.7 million hectares of peat areas, which had already been granted licenses for oil palm plantations had been abandoned.

“So it is no longer necessary to issue new permits,” he said.

According to the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) secretary general Joko Supriyono, the ministry’s decision was regrettable.

He said the government should not punish the industry by not issuing new permits just because some businesspeople failed to follow regulations.

“They should resolve the problems with the business people who violate their permits without dragging the rest of us into it,” he said.

“If we cannot get new permits, it will affect the growth of palm oil plantations in the country.” (rch)