Nature Alert: Police chief inspects biggest illegal logging catch

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Police chief inspects biggest illegal logging catch

Nurni Sulaiman , The Jakarta Post , Paser, East Kalimantan | Tue, 09/29/2009 THe Jakarta Post

National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri visited Paser regency in East Kalimantan on Tuesday to inspect a large batch of seized timber, proving the province is still rife with illegal logging.

During the crackdown, the East Kalimantan police confiscated over 16,000 logs of high-priced meranti, kruing, bengkirai and ulin woods in Paser and Penajam Paser Utara regencies, the biggest catch ever unveiled by the police in Kalimantan.

The officers arrested two suspects but are still hunting down two others. They also seized 12 excavators, 14 bulldozers and two dump trucks belonging to the suspects.

Police found the suspects failed to show the documentation required to fell the trees.

East Kalimantan police chief Insp. Mathius Salempang and Paser police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hery Sasongko accompanied Bambang during the inspection.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/29/police-chief-inspects-biggest-illegal-logging-catch.html

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.