Indonesia: Major Illegal Logging Operation Disrupted

Jakarta Globe 16 Nov 11;

The National Police’s special crimes unit says it has disrupted an illegal logging syndicate with the potential to cause significant damage in the Kubu Raya district of West Kalimantan.

Police say the operation, under way since Monday, has resulted in the seizure of thousands of mahang hardwood logs.

“The timber was still in the form of raw logs, numbering 1,869. We are in the process of measuring and counting them with expert witnesses from the Forestry Ministry,” a police officer taking part in the investigation said on Wednesday.

“The suspect is an individual with the initials A.I. He is not a forestry license holder but a local businessman from Pontianak,” said the source, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

A.I. will be charged with illegal logging under the Law on Forestry. He could face up to 10 years in prison or a Rp 5 billion ($555,000) fine if convicted.

Mahang is a “pioneer” species that tends to colonize logged areas. It is used by local residents for temporary structures that are not in direct contact with the ground, as well as for interior moldings. For export it is usually combined with other timber pulp to make particleboard and plywood.

When contacted on Wednesday, the director of the special crimes unit, Brig. Gen. Anas Yusuf, declined to confirm the details of the operation.

Last April, a joint team from the West Kalimantan Police’s criminal investigations unit and their National Police counterparts seized thousands of cubic meters of timber belonging to logging company Wana Bangun Agung.

The timber, believed to have been logged illegally, was found in the possession of a plywood company in Arang Limbung, which, as with the location of this week’s seized logs, is also in Kubu Raya district.

In that earlier operation, the police found numerous logs that were not of the 21 species that are legally allowed to be felled under a 2007 Forestry Ministry regulation. The logs were felled from near Putussibau, in the Kapuas Hulu district of West Kalimantan. Farouk Arnaz