Illegal Logging in Indonesia

The big fish are still getting away with it
Timber barons safe because of weak and corrupt justice system, says report
The Straits Times, April 17, 2007
By Devi Asmarani, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT


'Forest crimes in Indonesia involve complex relationships among a number of interconnected participants - timber tycoons, military and police officers, corrupt government officials and politicians, the judiciary and international smuggling syndicates.' - JOINT REPORT by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak, an environmental group based in West Java




JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S efforts to fight illegal logging are being seriously undermined by a weak and corrupt justice system, environmental groups charge.

A joint report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak, an environmental group based in West Java, revealed how the big bosses behind illegal logging operations remain untouchable despite being responsible for huge forest losses every year.

The Indonesian government estimates that illegal logging has been claiming about 2.8 million ha of forest a year since the beginning of the decade.

The plundering of protected and highly prized wood and damage to the ecosystem cost the country US$4 billion (S$6 billion) annually.

Stopping the trade is one of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's key policy aims, and several raids on illegal logging have been made since 2005.

Indeed, the report cites an unprecedented anti-illegal logging operation in Papua in March 2005, which managed to bring in 186 suspects.

By this January, however, only 13 people have been convicted, with most of them sentenced to two years or less in jail. None of them were ringleaders.

Telapak activist M. Yayat Alfianto said: 'The government has made some progress in combating illegal logging, but the results in terms of prosecution of the main culprits have been very poor.

'Without a strong deterrent, the problem will get worse again as the timber barons realise they have nothing to fear.'

The groups say there are strong indications that the men at the top of the illegal trade enjoy the protection of police and military, as well as prosecutors and judges.

Most of those caught in the clampdown have been people lower down the chain, such as loggers, truck drivers and ship captains.

'Forest crimes in Indonesia involve complex relationships among a number of interconnected participants - timber tycoons, military and police officers, corrupt government officials and politicians, the judiciary and international smuggling syndicates,' the report said.

And it warned that until the problem was tackled at source, by putting timber barons behind bars, the threat to the country's forests would remain.

A recent report by the United Nations found illegal logging taking place in 37 out of Indonesia's 41 national parks, causing ecological disasters such as floods and landslides and putting numerous animals on the endangered list.

Last month, international environmental watchdog Greenpeace dubbed Indonesia 'the world's fastest destroyer of forest', with about 51 sq km - an area equivalent to 7,200 football fields - being destroyed every day.

A Ministry of Forestry spokesman agreed that the fight against illegal logging had failed to bring the timber barons to justice, but blamed this on 'discrepancies' in the way laws were interpreted.

'Because there are many laws pertaining to forestry and forest-related crimes, there are differences in the way the laws are interpreted in court,' he told The Straits Times.

'Lawyers for these illegal loggers use these loopholes to get out of convictions.'

He said the loggers were often able to 'prove' that their timber came from legitimate sources by manipulating paperwork.

The spokesman explained that those behind illegal logging often also own legitimate companies which had been given logging concessions to certain forested areas several years ago.

'By now these areas should have been logged and cleared, but they convince law enforcers that the timber they plunder from elsewhere comes from these areas,' he explained.

But he said the ministry is not giving up its fight to end the illegal trade.

'We are trying hard now to share common understanding on these issues with all the parties involved, including the law enforcers and local government,' he explained.

He added that the ministry was working with Parliament to draw up a Bill to tackle illegal logging.