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Indonesia ‘Woefully Inadequate’ on Illegal Loggers: Deforestation Probe
August 05, 2010

In this file photo, police officers stand guard at an illegal logging site at Tegar Village, Bengkalis District, Riau. (Antara Photo/FB Anggoro) In this file photo, police officers stand guard at an illegal logging site at Tegar Village, Bengkalis District, Riau. (Antara Photo/FB Anggoro)
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kales
4:27pm Aug 5, 2010

The corruption in Indonesia is absolutely breathtaking. Where there is a rupiah to be made there is a corrupt individual ready to take it.

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Jakarta. Indonesia is allowing powerful businessmen to get rich from smuggling rare timber to China despite its pledges to crack down on illegal logging and preserve its forests, environmentalists said on Thursday.

An undercover investigation by the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and local group Telapak found rampant smuggling of merbau, a valuable hardwood found mainly in Papua.

The probe tracked the illicit trade in merbau from the forests where it was being logged to the ships where it was being illegally exported, mainly to China, with the help of corrupt officials.

Complaints to authorities about the two alleged kingpins in the trade had achieved nothing, the groups said in a report.

A press release by EIA and Telpak identified the businessmen as Ricky Gunawan and Hengky Gosal.

“While the huge quantity of illegal timber flowing from Indonesia during the first half of the decade has declined, effective law enforcement against those responsible — the financiers, company bosses and corrupt officials — has been woefully inadequate,” EIA campaign director Julian Newman said in a statement.

The groups called on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make good on his promises to crack down on what he has called the “logging mafia” that is accused of destroying much of the country’s pristine forests.

Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, mainly through deforestation.

Yudhoyono has pledged to slash its emissions by more than 40 percent over 2005 levels by 2020, as long as foreign donors pour billions of dollars into the country for forest preservation.


Agence France-Presse/JG