East Kalimantan Police Sound Alarm Over Illegal Timber Flow to Malaysia

Tunggadewa Mattangkilang Jakarta Globe 5 Sep 12;

Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. Police in East Kalimantan are working with their counterparts in Malaysia to crack down on the transborder smuggling of illegal timber, following a series of seizures of valuable logs destined for Sabah state.

Sr. Comr. Antonius Wisnu Sutirta, a spokesman for the provincial police, said on Tuesday that police had foiled six attempts in August alone to smuggle illegally logged timber into Malaysia, arresting 11 people in the process.

“We’re now working with the Malaysian police because the wood logged here is meant for sale there, and the traders are based there,” he said.

He added that the smugglers were known to float the logs downstream toward the Malaysian border, before loading them onto boats and taking them across the border under cover of darkness.

“This is what we’ve been able to glean from the suspects,” Antonius said.

“Their main logging areas are along the border region in Malinau, Nunukan and Bulungan districts.”

The seizures last month netted 1,002 logs from the rare and valuable Borneo ironwood tree, known locally as ulin .

The wood, described as one of the densest and most durable types of timber in the world, typically sells for around $2,000 per cubic meter abroad, but is banned for export by the Indonesian government.

By comparison, ramin, another tropical hardwood and the most valuable commercial tree species allowed for export by Indonesia, sells for around $1,000.

Ulin is virtually depleted in Sabah, while logging in Indonesia is restricted to trees with a diameter less than 60 centimeters.

A recently concluded three-month survey by the military in Nunukan found fewer than 100 mature ulin trees remaining in the entire district. The slow-growing trees take more than a century to grow to a diameter of 30 centimeters.

Antonius acknowledged that illegally logged ulin timber was also being sold inside the country. He said police were working with domestic institutions such as the provincial forestry and transportation agencies to crack down on the trade.

“We really need people to come forward and report to us if they have any information about illegal logging,” he said.

Lt. Ego Harmawan, who led the survey of the ulin forests, said that although there were no more industrial-scale illegal logging practices of the kind common in the 1990s, the logging was still continuing.

“Most of the time it’s taking place on a small scale and being done by local residents for whom these trees represent the only source of income,” he said