Nature Alert: Forestry company denies affiliation with Riau Andalan

Thursday, 26 June 2008

Forestry company denies affiliation with Riau Andalan

Forestry company denies affiliation with Riau Andalan

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Thu, 06/26/2008

An executive in the legal department of PT Persada Karya Sejati (PKS), based in Pelalawan regency, Riau province, has told the Corruption Court that her company is not affiliated with PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP).

"They are independently separate companies but are engaged in business contracts related to the development of pulp plantations and the supply of wood," Paulina testified during the trial of Pelalawan Regent Tengku Azmun Jaafar on Tuesday.

Azmun is facing charges of illegally issuing authorization letters to 15 companies for the utilization of 120,000 hectares of forest in the regency between 2002 and 2003.

Paulina countered the testimony of another witness, former Pelalawan forestry office employee Hambali, who told an earlier court session that PKS had acquired several companies in Pelalawan that owned forest utilization and pulp plantation development licenses.

Hambali told the court two weeks ago the PKS was really a unit of RAPP, one of the country's largest pulp and paper producers in Indonesia.
Paulina said that legally PKS and RAPP are not affiliated, "but my company (PKS) supplied RAPP with pulp materials under ordinary business contracts".

PKS, she added, did business not only with RAPP but also supplied pulp and timber to other companies in Pelalawan.

Corruption Eradication Commission prosecutors said seven of the forest-based companies acquired by the PKS had been set up by Regent Azmun's relatives and cronies to obtain forest utilization licenses.

Prosecutors accuse Azmun of receiving more than Rp 19 billion (US$2 million) from the companies to which he issued forest utilization permits.

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.