Indonesian Ministers Blame Heavy Rain and Quake, Not Loggers, for Flash Flood in Wasior

Dessy Sagita,Banjir Ambarita & Susilo Wardhani Jakarta Globe 11 Oct 10;

Jakarta. A top government minister on Monday said last week’s flash flood that hit Wasior in West Papua and killed more than 140 people, was not caused by massive illegal logging in the area, but was the result of intense rainfall.

Agung Laksono, the coordinating minister for people’s welfare, told a press conference in Jakarta that there was no large-scale logging in the area.

He said though it was highly likely that some individuals cut down trees in the area without permits, there was no evidence of illegal logging being conducted by a corporation.

“The flood happened because rain of very high intensity poured relentlessly for a few days. The National Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency [BMKG] has said that extreme weather is to be expected.”

Several environmental organizations have said unchecked illegal logging on the mountains near Wasior was to blame for the flash flood.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta, speaking at the same event, said only around 1 percent of land had been converted in Wasior since 2000, which meant that no major impact had been made on the land as a result of illegal logging.

“I know we can see many logs in Wasior, but they’re probably only for household use,” he said. Gusti said the Wasior area had become unstable after an earthquake on Oct. 4, and this made it unable to withstand the effects of the torrential rain.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said separately on Monday he would visit Wasior directly to confirm whether or not the flood was triggered by illegal logging. He is scheduled to leave for Wasior on Wednesday and stay there until Friday.

“As far as I’m concerned, the last illegal logging case handled by the police happened not too far from the flood location, but we will see directly at the site,” he said.

Agung said the government was looking for a safe area to relocate the thousands of people who have been left homeless or had houses severely damaged by the flood.

“Currently, the regional government of West Papua and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) are looking for a safe location for a proper new resettlement area,” he said.

Agung said Wasior was not suitable for habitation because of its geographic location, being too near to a forest reservation.

He said West Papua authorities were thinking of building a resettlement south of Wasior, in Raseei, a 30-minute drive from the disaster site.

La Abidin, an Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) official, said on Sunday survivors were forced to seek refuge in damaged homes and buildings because the government had focused more on recovering bodies.

He said the survivors were vulnerable if more floods hit the area.

Agung said the government would immediately start the reconstruction and the rehabilitation program once the emergency response period had ended on October 18th.

He said the government would soon decree that the post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction program was the responsibility of all ministries and so they must each set aside part of their budgets for the programs.

As of Monday, 145 people had been found dead while 103 remained missing following the Oct. 4 flash flood.

Minister: Almost impossible illegal logging behind Wasior flood
Antara 12 Oct 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said it was almost impossible that illegal logging had been the factor behind the recent flood in Wasior, Teluk Wondama, West Papua.

"According to me the initial cause of the flash flood was high intensity of rains," he said here on Monday.

He said based on satelite images of 2000 and 2009 it was seen that forest coverage in the area had dropped just one percent.

"Besides that one must know that forests in Wasior are natural reserves so that they are protected tightly and monitored closely so that it is almost impossible that a forest concession holder is operating there," he said.

He admitted that it was not impossible that tree felling had occurred but it must have been not on a big scale but just by individuals and not by big companies.

He said the region had been hit by an earthquake before the flood occured so the earth there had become unstable.

Because of the earthquake the earth structure there had changed and some of it had covered the river making the water in the river to overflow.

"So this has happened because of a natural phenomenon. If land clearing has really occurred it must not have been too significant," he said.

According to the latest data from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency up to 145 people had been found dead after the flood. (*)

Indonesia Probes Illegal Logging Role In Papua Floods
Olivia Rondonuwu PlanetArk 12 Oct 10;

Indonesian officials and forestry experts are to investigate claims that illegal logging contributed to floods that have killed at least 145 people, the Forestry Ministry said on Monday.

This comes ahead of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to the flood-wreaked district in Papau province this week. Recent floods have left more than 700 injured and 123 missing and flattened houses and civil infrastructure in Wasior district, in the western half of Indonesia's easternmost Papua province. Over 4,300 people have been left homeless.

"We want to know the causes of the disaster and we want to know whether illegal logging was the cause or not," said Masyhud, a Forestry Ministry spokesman, who, like many Indonesians, has only one name.

Indonesia has struggled to curb widespread illegal logging of its forests, which exacerbates damage caused by flooding.

Conservationist group Greenomics said in a statement that a logging 'mafia' was partly to blame for the floods.

Forests are cleared in resource-rich Papua to make way for mines, plantations or local infrastructure but its remoteness, vastness and system of semi-autonomous government have made monitoring difficult.

Krystof Obidzinski, a scientist at the West Java-based Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said that between 2000 and 2008, 2300 hectares (5,683 acres) of forested land were logged in the flood-affected district and 26,800 hectares of primary forest were thinned or disturbed to make way for housing, small-scale agriculture and infrastructure.

"Most of the deforestation has occurred outside of the logging concessions," he said.

(Sunanda Creagh)

‘No More Logging Around Wasior’
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Banjir Ambarita
Jakarta Globe 12 Oct 10;

Jakarta. After denying that the deadly flash floods in Wasior, West Papua, were caused by illegal logging, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Tuesday said he planned to reclassify existing forest concessions near the district into conservation areas.

Forest concessions are essentially production forests, where concession holders are allowed to carry out commercial logging.

Conservation concessions, on the other hand, will allow private holders to earn money through the carbon trading mechanism in exchange for preserving the trees.

Based on ministry data, there are 22 active forest concessions in West Papua, none of them located in Wasior.

“We are planning to change these production forests into conservation areas so that these [concession] holders will shift to carbon trading,” Zulkifli said.

At least 145 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands of homes were damaged when torrential rains triggered landslides in Wasior and caused a river to burst its banks on Oct. 4.

More than 100 people are still missing.

Activists have blamed illegal logging for the disaster, a charge that has been denied by the government.

Zulkifli said it was impossible that the floods were caused by illegal logging because the district was classified as a reserve.

“Wasior is already a nature reserve area which is the highest status for conservation,” he said.

“Besides, the area itself is very dangerous because [the landscape] is too steep,” he said.

He added that his previous statement that illegal logging caused the flash floods was misquoted by the media.

“I did say that there is still illegal logging but that’s in West Papua, not in Wasior, because there are no forest concessionaires and no illegal logging there,” he said.

“The flash floods were caused by the land textures that were too steep and intense rains.”

However, legislators from Papua accused the government of lying when they denied illegal logging contributed to the disaster.

Paskalis Kossay, a Golkar lawmaker, said the government should not forget the protests in 2001 and 2002, when angry villagers assaulted the Papua offices of three logging companies, resulting in the death of five police officials, three employees and an unknown number of villagers.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said he would visit Wasior today to see for himself whether illegal logging caused the flash floods.

The local lawmakers, frustrated by what they deemed to be the government’s slow relief efforts, also demanded that the site be declared a disaster area.

Ishak Mandacan, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said the latest reports revealed that more than 2,000 victims were staying at a local port without enough food or a decent place to rest.

Siti Romlah, a worker at the Manokwari health center, said evacuees in Manokwari have begun contracting diarrhea, respiratory illness and malaria.

“From the 1,078 people currently housed at the military base in Manokwari, 535 are now ill, as much as 172 contracted respiratory illnesses while others are suffering from malaria and skin diseases,” Siti said on Tuesday.

The lack of health facilities and poor sanitation at the location was exacerbating the situation, she said.

Ishak said he had requested his party leaders devote more attention to helping the victims but had not received a response.

“On the contrary, I was asked to give Rp 15 million [$1,700] as contribution for the Democrat anniversary celebration.”