Nature Alert: Indonesia to clean up timber exports

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Indonesia to clean up timber exports

JAKARTA (AFP) — Indonesia will launch a new system of independent certification for all timber exports to combat widespread illegal logging, the forestry minister said Monday.

From September all timber leaving the country must be certified by an independent body of business and NGO representatives, Malam Sambat Kaban told reporters.

"With the existence of Indonesian timber certification, we hope that export destination countries can better accept (imports) and as a consequence should be better able to enforce laws so that they can handle companies that receive illegal timber," Kaban said.

"There is already (certification in Indonesia) but now those giving the certification are independent, non-governmental bodies," he said.

The certification launch comes amid recent measures by developed nations to stem the inflow of illegally obtained forest products, including a 2008 amendment to the Lacey Act in the United States banning trade in illegally sourced plants and plant products.

Indonesia, with vast tracts of rain forest, struggles with high rates of deforestation and illegal logging, aided by poor law enforcement and widespread corruption.

Kaban himself has been accused of being a soft touch on illegal logging after he wrote a letter of recommendation to a Sumatra court two years ago that helped a wealthy timber baron get off charges of illegally logging billions of dollars worth of trees.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWi_SJn9HAs3Mflv3_58dyuhMDYQ

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.