SUMMARY: Although Indonesia’s forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, style="mso-spacerun: yes"> there continues to be far more capacity in the pulp and paper industry than can be sustainably supplied with raw materials.

Governments have not yet figured out how to cooperate

SINGAPORE A plan recently unveiled by the Singapore government promises to give this prosperous island-state a green future, including at least 310 days of clean air per year by 2012. But there is a catch. Singapore cannot control the widespread burning of forests and scrub to clear land in neighboring Indonesia, a practice that at this time of year sends clouds of wind-borne smoke and pollutants, known euphemistically as haze, sweeping across large swathes of Southeast Asia.

There are worrying signs that Indonesia’s timber barons are trying to accelerate their destruction of Indonesia’s last remaining forests. In a series of underhanded campaigns, the tycoons are posing as conservationists in order to increase their profits and productivity. In the latest example of this brazen guile, the Indonesian Forestry Society (Masyarakat Perhutanan Indonesia – MPI) announced Thursday (29/8/02) it will provide Rp100 billion ($11.25 million) to help the government curb timber smuggling and protect

60 minute discussion featuring Indonesia’s Minister for Forestry DR. Ir. M. Prakosa, MSc. and CIFOR Research Scientist Chris Barr
Available in English and Bhs. Indonesia.

No sooner had the ink dried on the ASEAN Regional Haze Agreement last June when meteorologists announced El Niño was already well under way. It seems Indonesia and its neighbors are in for another six months of fires and smoke costing millions of dollars in economic losses, health costs and environmental damage. While the approaching El Niño is not expected to spark anything like the conflagration of 1997-1998, fires have already started in Kalimantan and Sumatra. People in Pontianak, West Kalimantan are beginning to don face masks while in southern Thailand residents are being advised on safety measures.

Dalam waktu kurang dari sebulan, pemerintah telah mengeluarkan dua kebijakan yang sangat membantu para konglomerat di sektor kehutanan. Pertama, atas usulan BPPN, Komite Kebijakan Sektor Keuangan (KKSK) telah mengeluarkan sebuah kebijakan yang kontraversial dengan memberikan perpanjangan masa pengembalian utang mantan pemegang saham pengendali bank-bank bermasalah yang dikelola oleh BPPN. Kedua, melalui usulan Departemen Perindustrian dan Perdagangan, KKSK meminta BPPN untuk memberikan restrukturisasi utang yang seringan-ringannya kepada perusahaan-perusahaan di sektor kehutanan.

Jakarta Post (2 July 2002) ran a letter reprinted from Koran Tempo about the government’s decision to shut down or reduce the capacity of wood processing companies that lack sufficient legal supply of timber. The author says this is unfair since the government itself is to blame for the fact that companies cannot get enough timber.

The letter misses the most important point. Wood processing industries currently use around 60-70 million cubic meters of wood each year, while Indonesia’s forests can only sustainably produce about one third of that. If that continues the country will soon deplete its resources. This has already happened in Thailand, Nigeria, and the Philippines, which went from being major timber exporters to net importers in just a few decades.