Nature Alert: Cut forest mafia, activists told government

Friday 5 February 2010

Cut forest mafia, activists told government

Cut forest mafia, activists told government

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 02/05/2010

A coalition of activists called on the government to take stern action against forest mafia masterminds to combat corruption in the forest sector, which has caused financial loss to the country.

The activists, including Febri Diansyah and Ilian Deta Sari from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), came to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday to push the latter to investigate corruption in the forestry industry.

They said that government officials and businesspeople had damaged the country’s forest through illegal logging and license brokering for forest conversion.

“The government needs to root out masterminds of the forest mafia,” ICW coordinator Emerson Yunhto said Wednesday.

Activists, including from the ICW, Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), Kalimantan-based Save Our Borneo, Sawit Watch and Riau Forest Rescue Working Network (Jikalahari), formed a coalition to address forest mafia Wednesday.

Coordinator of Jikalahari, Susanto Kurniawan said that license brokering for forest conversion had accelerated the deforestation rate in Indonesia, which currently hit around 1.08 million hectares per year.

“Forest mafia exists due to weak law enforcement and commitment to protect forests,” he said. He added that overlapping authority in handling the forest had furthered accelerated the conversion of forests into plantations and mining areas.

The Forestry Ministry said the country suffered financial losses of at least Rp 30 trillion (US$3 billion) per year from illegal logging.

A report from the International Forestry Research Center (Cifor) said that many countries with an abundance of forests had weak governance structures to control corruption.

The Forestry Ministry said that the office targeted to reduce illegal logging to only around a dozen cases and less than 600 cubic meters of timber. The latest data reported from 2008 that there were about 700 cases of illegal logging.

“Such a target cannot be reached if forest mafia is untouchable,” Abet Nego Tarigan, deputy director of the Sawit Watch Indonesia, said. He also warned corruption from license brokering by “unruly” officials was rampant in the plantation sector.

An investigation by the Sawit Watch Indonesia found businesspeople spent an illegal fee of an average Rp 750 million to gain a permit to 1,000 hectares of plantation. “It’s easy to trace forest mafia. Many plantations have no land-use certificates,” Abet said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/05/cut-forest-mafia-activists-told-government.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.