| Illegal logging along Indonesian-Malaysian border (Kalimantan) (20 Jun 00) |
| TWO RELATED ARTICLES
Illegal logging rampant along Indonesian-Malaysian border Source: The Jakarta Post Tuesday, May 23, 2000 By Edi Petebang PONTIANAK The residents of Seriang village, where people usually live in harmony, recently became involved in a brawl with residents of a neighboring village. The reason was that the stakes indicating the border between this village and the territory of Malaysia were moved by illegal loggers. Seriang village is one of the villages in Badau subdistrict, Kapuas Hulu district, West Kalimantan. Badau and Batang Lupar subdistricts share a land border with East Malaysia (Sarawak). In these subdistricts, interstate illegal logging is rampant because of the invisible state border. Timber bosses (locally called cukong) from Sarawak cooperate with certain businessmen and regional administration officials and military or police officers in Kapuas Hulu and can therefore freely run their interstate illegal logging businesses. How does this kind of business come about? A study by a team of students from Tanjungpura University (Untan) in Pontianak shows that there are three stages involved: (1) approaches made to village community figures; (2) surveys of the potential; (3) logging and sawing; (4) transportation; (5) tallying and (6) selling. Before logging starts, the boss will meet all the community figures in the villages where logging will be conducted. Negotiations concerning what the village needs ensue. Let's say a longhouse is needed. If the boss agrees to this request, the villagers will allow logging in the forest area in the village. Apart from building a longhouse, the boss also pays the village Rp 25,000 to Rp 50,000 per cubic meter of timber collected from this forested area. Each month the boss also pays the village Rp 60,000 for each log taken. The money is divided among all the families in the village. If a village does not get this monthly compensation, it gets, for example, Rp 1 million at the start of land clearing. Payment is usually in Malaysian ringgit. Then a survey is done of what types of commercial timber is available. Generally, the types of timber preferred are red meranti, white meranti, ramin, kalsaua, bedaru and mabang. Tengkawang, which is protected, is also logged. After the survey is completed, logging and sawing follows. Illegal logging is found in Tangit I, Tangit II, Tangit IV, Keladan, Guntul, Sumpak, Seraing, Tematu and Kapar villages, all of which are in the subdistricts of Bada and Batang Lupar, Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan. The timber, after being sawn, is transported by bike, truck or carried on a person's shoulders to the tallying site. If the logging site is close to a river, the timber is transported by boat. At the tallying site, the timber is sorted, given a code and then measured. Tallying is again conducted at the border between Indonesia and Malaysia by the buyers, who generally come from Malaysia. According to the Untan study there are 14 sawmill owners in various villages in Batang Lupar subdistrict, six others are Sibu residents in East Malaysia. Strangely, a company specializing in land clearance for oil palm estates is also involved in the timber business. When everything is completed and a buyer is found, the timber is transported by truck. Each day 50 to 60 trucks head for the border area with Malaysia. Logs are usually transported on a raft along Kapuas River and sold to various sawmills in Pontianak. If there is no buyer for the timber, it is piled up until a buyer comes along. There is a high demand for timber in this area because of the low prices. Almost 90 percent of the timber from the border area between Indonesia and Malaysia is sold to buyers in Malaysia. This timber is transported overland along a road built on land owned by locals. Every truck using the road must pay Rp 40,000 to the landowner. At the border area, the timber is transported to Malaysia via a road passing through oil palm estates in Malaysia. Trucks carrying wood from Malaysia freely enter Indonesian territory. Collusion with Indonesia's customs and excise officers at the border area makes this possible. Once in Malaysian territory, the timber is collected by a legitimate company. It is tallied, after which tax is paid to the Malaysian government, legalizing the timber's entry into Malaysia. No taxes are imposed on this timber in Indonesia. There are various methods of illegal logging, one of them involving oil palm estates. An Indonesian company, for example, establishes an oil palm estate in the border area. The land clearing contractor would be a Malaysian company. Locals then consent to the presence of this oil palm estate because of rosy promises made by the company. The site chosen would be one with a big supply of timber. The timber is collected during land clearing, after which the oil palm estate is simply abandoned. Another method involves the establishment of a forest management cooperative. In practice, the cooperative hires a Malaysian contractor, a practice that will legalize tree felling. Backing Illegal logging in the border area between Indonesia and Malaysia has been going on for a long time. This practice has become more extensive since the economic crisis hit the country in 1997. Illegal logging is difficult to eradicate because many parties enjoy the benefits from this activity. Almost all government officials authorized to eradicate illegal logging -- from the district head level up to the level of neighborhood chief -- get a share. It seems this illegal business will never be eradicated because a number of top civilian officials and military or police officers allegedly back it. Reportedly, a timber boss built a regional administration office, and the fund allocated by the government for the construction of this office building went into the pocket of the head of this government office. This dirty business is an open secret. However, if anybody dares to report this illegal logging practice to primary government offices, it is said that the person's life would be in danger. That is why few community members have the courage to report this insidious practice to related government authorities. Obviously illegal logging has had a considerable adverse impact. Losses have been inflicted on the state and serious damage caused to the environment. As a result of illegal logging, a number of villages will be flooded during high tide, with the ecosystem of swampy forests being damaged. In 1988, deforestation in West Kalimantan reached a level of 16.04 percent a year. The percentage has since increased, especially because illegal loggers in Kapuas Hulu have encroached upon the buffer forest zones in the conservation areas of Sentarum Lake and Betung Kerihun National Park. If the area around upstream Kapuas River is fully deforested, the river will run dry during the dry season and overflow during the wet season. This impact will affect all West Kalimantan people, most of whom depend on Kapuas River in their daily lives. If this illegal logging is allowed to go on unchecked, whither is the sovereignty of the Indonesian state in the eyes of Malaysian businessmen? ------------------------------------------------------- Tracing large-scale illegal logging business in Kalimantan Source: The Jakarta Post Tuesday, May 23, 2000 By Edi Petebang PONTIANAK Under a scorching sun and in the presence of a number of West Kalimantan provincial officials, containers containing timber from the KM Clover were pried open on May 5 by activists from the local branch of the Indonesian Students Front and a number of other NGOs. Of the 42 containers onboard the vessel, only seven had the necessary legal documents. The timber was going to be exported to Singapore. The smuggling attempt was foiled by the student activists after they had taken hostage of HJ Tamtelahi, head of Pontianak Customs and Excise Office; Hapsoro Rahardjo and Soenarno of West Kalimantan forestry office; Captain Salehuddin, the port administrator; Captain Zainuddin, seaport section head; and A. Wahid of the port security unit. It was the first time ever that an attempt to smuggle timber had been foiled. In fact, the illegal timber business is a public secret in West Kalimantan. Timber smuggling is only a part of a large illegal logging businesses. To trace the business, one must start from the tree felling and document processing stage. It is in these two links in the chain that dirty logging business is practiced. Logs are considered illegal if they are not accompanied by necessary documents or if the wood comes from illegal loggers with no forest concessions. Illegal logging in Kalimantan is either performed traditionally or non-mechanically, semimechanically or fully mechanically. Individual loggers opt for the traditional method and the wood they target is belian/ulin hardwood and meranti. Usually they will be given one or two chain saws and meal allowances of between Rp 1 million and Rp 2 million by a cukong (a financier in an illegal practice). With approximately Rp 10 million, which includes operational costs, you can begin an illegal logging business. Most of the chain saw operators are locals living close to the forest. To them this is their way of earning a living. "We do not steal timber. This is our wood because we were raised and live in the forest. We guard this area, in fact. So are we to blame if we also collect the wood?" said Manum, one of the chain saw operators in Ketapang district. These people usually sell their timber to sawmill companies, which are found along the Kapuas River, Mahakam River, Landak River, Pawan River and other major waterways in Kalimantan. Do they get rich because of this activity? No. Instead, they owe money to the cukong, who is the one that gets richer and richer. The second type of illegal logging is done in a semimechanical way. This time the cukong are the sawmill owners. Many of them do not have any forest concessions and therefore they have to obtain all their timber illegally. These sawmills also get supplies of timber from other provinces and even from Malaysia. Theft Mechanical illegal logging is done by forest concessionaires. In every forest concessionaire's basecamp/logpond and sawmill, there is a supervisor from the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations. He is assigned to legalize the annual work plan and log transportation certificates and check the quantity, type, and size of the timber felled. The document mentions the quantity, the type and the size of the timber and to whom it is being sent to. Usually the types and the diameters of the trees permitted to be felled will be faked. This document is important because the amount of the Forest Product Contribution Fee and the Reforestation Fund payable will be based on the data contained in it. It also sets forth the time taken to transport the timber from the basecamp to the sawmill to ensure that the volume of the timber does not increase during the journey. It is at this point that a forestry official and a concessionaire are involved in collusion. Usually the quantity put down on the document is smaller than the real figure so that the amounts of fees to be paid is also smaller. Apart from this practice, they may also prepare a number of blank forms, which will be used to purchase illegal timber during the journey from the basecamp to the sawmill. That is why the time mentioned on the document is usually longer than it actually is. The forestry official can also be hand in glove with the concessionaires regarding the annual work plan. If a forestry official of a higher rank happens to conduct a site inspection, he will only be taken to the logpond or basecamp, where he will receive favorable reports and a bribe. That is why no action is taken against illegal logging going on outside forest concession areas. At a sawmill, the forestry official will check whether data of the transported timber matches that given on the document. Here, there is again collusion between him and the forest concessionaire. Another collusive practice occurs when forest concessionaires purchase timber from illegal loggers, who usually do not bother about the legal document, arguing that obtaining this piece of paper involves a time-consuming process. After the timber is processed, collusive and illegal practices occur again when it is going to be exported. According to Naib Tappi, a member of the West Kalimantan legislation assembly, there are at least two kinds of timber smuggling that go on through a seaport. First, physically smuggling the timber and secondly, "administrative smuggling". The former is easy to detect while the latter is not because it is usually neatly arranged and involves certain personnel in the customs and excise office, transportation company, the port administration, sailing companies, the harbormaster and the sea, river and coastal security forces. Why are illegal logging and timber smuggling so rampant in West Kalimantan? "West Kalimantan is indeed a fertile ground for these practices," said a timber businessman in Pontianak. What he means is that the area is suitable for such practices because the forest areas are vast, the transportation easy and certain government officials quite willing to engage in collusive practices. In the case of the MV Clover, out of 35 illegal containers, 16 belonged to CV Brata, a company which is under the auspices of the police's Brata Bakti Foundation. Despite a denial by the West Kalimantan Police, the fact that CV Brata is involved only confirms the suspicion that security apparatuses are involved in illegal logging practices ============================================ Dr. Louis Lebel SARCS Science Coordinator/Researcher Affiliation: Faculty of Social Science, Chiang Mai University, Thailand Postal & Home Address: 189/10 Lake View Park 1 Chiang Mai - Mae Joh Rd Muang District, Chiang Mai 50000 THAILAND Email: llebel@cmnet.co.th Direct Tel/Fax: 66-53-263-215 Mobile: 66-1-892-9647 ============================================ Current Project Sites http://www.icsea.or.id/sea-span/ http://www.icsea.or.id/issp/ http://www.icsea.or.id/gcbook/ ============================================ Southeast Asian Science Policy Network in Global Change an initiative of the Global Change Impacts Centre for Southeast Asia. |