Nature Alert: Illegal Logs Seized in West Kalimantan

Monday 18 February 2008

Illegal Logs Seized in West Kalimantan

Illegal Logs Seized in West Kalimantan

Source: The Jakarta Post - February 14, 2008
BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan

The military in West Kalimantan has confiscated some 32,000 logs believed to be illegally looted from rainforests in Putussibau.

Ten groups of people with connections to the logs have been detained by police for further investigation. Preliminary investigations suggest the logs were stolen from rainforests in Embalok Hilir, Bunut Hilir and Sintang Hulu on Feb. 7-8 and were to be transported to Java and overseas.

In January, 2,500 illegal logs were seized in a joint police and military operation in Sintang regency. The spokesman for the Tanjungpura Military Command overseeing Kalimantan, Col. Andi Sayuti, said here Tuesday the two cases had been handed to the police in West Kalimantan for further investigation.

He added that those involved in the logging were unemployed locals who had yet to receive a disbursement of rice aid from the local government. "The aid package of 1.8 tons of rice has yet to reach the poor people in the regency," he said, saying a low-income family received 50 kilograms of rice per month from the local administration. --JP

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.