Indonesia: Illegal logging damages Krinci Seblat National Park

Antara 14 Jun 13;

Musi Rawas, South Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Illegal logging is growing rampant damaging the Krinci Seblat National Park in the regency of Musi Rawas of South Sumatra , local people said.

High quality trees are cut everyday transported with dump trucks to a sawmill in that area, a Kota Tanjung villager, Damari, said on Friday.

Damari said he and other villagers are paid to cut the trees, but he did not say who paid them.

"We are only paid just enough for food. We have to accept the offer even if we know it is against the law. Otherwise we would not be able to support our families and repay debts," he said.

He said illegal logging had continued for a long time with no intervention from the law in the interior area 170 kilometers from Lubuklinggau.

Trucks loaded with tree logs are free through the forest away from the public roads to the sawmill, he said.

M Daud , head of the Ulu Rawas sub-district, was not available for comment , but local people said hundreds of cubic meters of logs were taken away by trucks from the forest everyday to a timber processing plant at Rawas Ulu near the Sumatra highway.

Most of the forests in the sub-district of Ulu Rawas in the regency of Musi Rawas are part of the Krinci Seblat National Park, which is protected by law.(*)

Editor: Heru