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Yudhoyono Talks Tough on Illegal Logging
April 07, 2010

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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday identified illegal logging as another form of entrenched corruption he wants to add to his growing list of “mafia.”

The former general talked tough about stopping the world’s fastest deforestation rates as he left for a regional summit in Vietnam where the environment looms as a key issue.

He also expressed his appreciation for the efforts of Greenpeace, which has angered powerful palm oil interests with protests that have seen some of its activists deported.

“I believe there’s a mafia in illegal logging. Our task force should be able to look into the possibility that it exists, and to stop it,” he told reporters at the airport.

“I also want to underline the importance of preserving our forests. I’ve followed Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, which are active” in criticizing forest management.

“I want to show my appreciation for their concerns, and I hope they will continue their partnership with Indonesia.”

This is not the first such proclamation by Yudhoyono. But a persistent culture of corruption within government frequently makes a mockery of his pledges to clean it up. He has labeled graft groups within the tax office and court system “mafia,” and created specialized task forces to eradicate them.

But like his frequent pronouncements about environmental responsibility, critics complain that little of substance actually gets done.

A recent study by the Center for East Asia Cooperation Studies at the University of Indonesia found that the Indonesian military was heavily involved in the illegal logging industry.

Unchecked deforestation, often to make way for palm oil plantations, makes Indonesia the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, according to most estimates.

US-based Human Rights Watch said in a report late last year that graft contaminated every level of the country’s logging industry, including the Ministry of Forestry.

Between 2003 and 2006, annual revenue lost to mismanagement and corruption in the timber industry was equal to total public health spending, it said. 

AFP