Sudradjat Djajapertjunda, the chairman of the Indonesian Forest Society told a seminar this week that wood smuggled oveseas from illegally logged forests undercuts the prices of legal wood, making legal forest owners and wood processing companies uncompetitive.

He spoke of “forestry sector de-industrialisation” as legal operators go bankrupt.

"Obviously, the gross domestic product in regions with significant forestry sectors like provinces of East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Riau and Papua will decrease."

He said mass layoffs in a sector that provides jobs for 16 million people was likely to lead to political instability.

Indonesia’s forestry minister Zulkifli Hasan tried to distance his ministry from a rash of illegal logging cases and the so-called logging mafia, saying they also involved rogue provincial officials and legislators.

“Don’t blame it on the Ministry of Forestry because the ministry only processes requests from district governments,” Zulkifli said at a meeting of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force. “The best we can do [to combat illegal logging] is to revoke logging permits.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last month set up a task force to evaluate the legal process involved in combating illegal logging, as well as allegations of bribery in the logging permit process.

The task force is taking a special interest in a 2008 case in Riau where police dropped their investigation of 14 pulp and paper companies after 22 months of work, saying there was a lack of evidence. Environmental groups claimed the decision was an indication the government was not serious about tackling illegal logging.

According to estimates from Jikalahari, a forest protection network, the country lost Rp 2.8 trillion ($US310 million) from the activities of the 11 companies involved in the investigation.

Task force secretary Denny Indrayana said it was examining the decision to drop the case.

“We will look at anomalies, especially if we feel that the police had enough of a case to continue to prosecution. However, we need clear evidence that bribery occurred,” he said.

Zulkifli said such cases were common. “The government has lost so many cases. Our burden had been eased now that the task force is examining the legal process,” the minister said. “In 10 years only one major company was found guilty but law enforcers did not try to execute the court sentence.”

Zulkifli said another problem was that many heads of subdistricts did not understand the issues involved.

“Up until now, about two million hectares [of forest] have been illegally encroached upon by mines and plantations,” he said.

Activists warn that continued illegal logging could spell an environmental disaster for the country. Indonesia has 42 million hectares of primary forest, 40 million hectares of degraded forest and 48 million hectares of irretrievably damaged forest areas.

The Director General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Darori, has said that there are cases of illegal logging that are not well handled.

For example in Central Kalimantan, about 960,000 hectares of forest are being illegally logged. In North Sumatra there are 16 companies operating illegally and in East Kalimantan 150 companies.
According to Darori, even for processed cases, the punishment is too light

“From 92 cases handled by the Supreme Court, 36 are freed, 24 are punished with prison sentences of less than 1 year and 19 cases for 1-2 year, and the rest are still in process,” said Darori in Jakarta yesterday.

Activists from the Natural Resources Law Institute (IHSA), which recently published its annual report on illegal logging cases in Indonesia, say the organised crime syndicates that mastermind illegal logging are difficult to trace.

“In our experience, the most difficult task is to get data on illegal logging cases. Officials seem reluctant to release it to the public,” said Fadli Moh. Noch, an IHSA researcher dealing with illegal logging in East Kalimantan, on Monday.

“Until now, it remains unclear which institution manages the data on illegal logging cases.”
The IHSA said it had obtained data on illegal logging cases from at four institutions, the police, the regional forestry office, the provincial prosecutor’s office and the high court.

Fadli said organised crime syndicates could have infiltrated the forestry permit process because many companies that were cutting down trees did not have Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) documents, which is required in filing for permission to log.

He said another indication that corruption had infiltrated the government was the lenient enforcement of illegal logging laws.

“Most illegal logging suspects are field operators. The average punishment [for such convicted suspects] is typically less than two years,” he said.

Researcher Achmad Djefrianto questioned the government’s claim that illegal logging had decreased of late.

“How could the government have calculated an increase or a decrease if they don’t have good records or data,” he said.

The IHSA published illegal logging cases in Jambi, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, from 2007 to 2008.

In East Kalimantan, police data shows that forest crime, including illegal logging, hit 314 cases in 2007, of which 187 were handed over to the East Kalimantan prosecutor’s office. In 2008, there were 220 cases, 92 of which were brought to the prosecutor’s office. However the city’s forestry office recorded only two illegal logging cases in 2008.

A member of the Judicial Mafia Taskforce Mas Achmad Santosa said on Sunday the taskforce was studying controversial verdicts in illegal logging cases, including that of fugitive Adelin Lis, who fled the country after the Supreme Court sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Sources: Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe, Xinhua News Agency