Nature Alert: Indonesia Logging Curbs Hit Pulp Industry

Saturday 25 August 2007

Indonesia Logging Curbs Hit Pulp Industry - Firms

Indonesia Logging Curbs Hit Pulp Industry - Firms
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INDONESIA: August 24, 2007

JAKARTA - Police raids targeting illegal loggers in Indonesia are hurting supplies of raw materials to pulp and paper companies, two major forestry companies said on Thursday.

Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, destroying an area of forest the size of 300 soccer pitches every our, according to Greenpeace.

Since the start of the year, police have tried to catch illegal loggers in areas including forest concessions owned by companies supplying wood to PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper and PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper in Sumatra island, said Agus Wahyudi, director of PT Sinar Mas Forestry.

Indah Kiat is a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper, part of the Sinar Mas Group, while PT Riau Andalan is a subsidiary of APRIL, owned by RGM International Group.

"The illegal logging operation has stopped completely flows of raw material from our partners. With the current raw material stocks, we can only operate until October," Wahyudi told reporters after executives from APRIL and Asia Pulp and Paper met government officials.

The two companies needed a total of 9 million tonnes of wood per year, Wahyudi said.

He said talks with the forestry ministry had not had any results.

Riau Andalan has the capacity to produce 2 million tonnes of pulp a year and 350,000 tonnes of paper a year, the company said on its Web site.

Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper has a capacity to produce 2 million tonnes of pulp, according to data from Indonesia's Industry Ministry.

Indonesia has 14 pulp mills with total capacity of 6.7 million tonnes and 79 paper factories with total output capacity of 10.36 million tonnes a year.

In 2006, Indonesia produced 6.23 million tonnes of pulp and 8.64 million tonnes of paper.

Environmentalists blame Indonesia's timber groups for illegal logging and the destruction of forests. The pulp and paper groups have denied that they use illegally logged timber.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.