Nature Alert: Illegal Logging in Kangean Island (Indonesia) on the Rise

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Illegal Logging in Kangean Island (Indonesia) on the Rise

Illegal Logging in Kangean Island (Indonesia) on the Rise

Wednesday, 27 January, 2010 | 14:55 WIB

TEMPO Interactive,

Sumenep:The Agency for the Study and Protection of Public Policy Victims (LP2KP) is demanding a firm action from the Sumenep Environment Agency (BLH) given that illegal logging is increasing in Kangean Island and continues to damage the forests. “At present, only 25 percent remains from the protected forest area and 45 percent from the production forest,” said Hamid, LP2KP chief, yesterday.

Based on LP2KP’s investigations carried out from November to December 2009, over 4.000 trunks of teak trees and other trees were transported on four motor boats every day. “The forest area in Kangean Island is under the Pamekasan branch of state-owned forest management company Perhutani ,” said BLH Sumenep chief, Abdul Muthalib.

MUSTHOFA BISRI.

http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2010/01/27/brk,20100127-221735,uk.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.