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| Illegal loggers cut timber to be sold for construction in a forest in Gresik of the Indonesia's East Java province on March 1, 2011. (Reuters Photo /Sigit Pamungkas) |
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The world’s
largest producer of teak, an Indonesian state-owned company on the island of
Java, has again been awarded sustainable forest management (SFM) certification.
But the company has a long and sometimes contentious relationship with forest
communities in the area, and the forest rights of indigenous communities remain
a potential cause of conflict.
“Land
rights have long been a source of violence on Java,” Rhett Butler, a leading
environmentalist and creator of a leading environmental news website told IRIN.
Perhutani, an Indonesian state forestry company, exploits 2.4 million hectares
of forests in Java — 7 percent of the island area — with earnings of around
US$400 million in 2011.
Although
Perhutani agreed in 2011 to the voluntary process that promotes eco-friendly
management in order to obtain certification, it controls a huge area of forest
once used by indigenous communities, many of whom still depend on the forests
for their livelihoods.
The company
needs FSC certification to access high-value wood markets in the United States
and Europe, said Muhammad Firman, director of the Forest Utilization Department
under Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry.
SFM
balances the present use of forests with their preservation for future
generations. Certification started in the 1980s and is granted to forest
companies by around 60 independent organizations under two main umbrella groups
— Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the world’s
largest forest certification system, and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) —
with 20 to 30 percent of North American and European forests having
certification, and Asia lagging far behind with only 2 to 4 percent.
However,
many activists believe SFM certification is geared less toward local
communities than toward the environment and facilitating trade between forest
companies and Western wood buyers
“When
indigenous people have been denied the right to use forests in the traditional
way, no ‘inclusion’ programme can fully match their loss. It is not a question
of “exclusion” or “inclusion,” said Deddy Raith, from the Jakarta-based NGO,
WALHI-Friends of the Earth Indonesia.
“Today,
Perhutani still has full responsibility over the forests,” said Ambrosius
Ruwindrijarto, president of local NGO, Telapak. “What we want is to mainstream
community logging as the new trees-management regime in Indonesia.”
Martua
Sirait, a policy analyst in Aceh Province for the Nairobi-based World
Agroforestry Center, maintains that the management of forests has ignored the
customary land rights of some 40 to 60 million people since the 1960s.
Large-scale
illegal loggers were often active in the forests, and local inhabitants were
exposed to danger by sometimes becoming involved, or being caught in the
crossfire. Between 1998 and 2008 Perhutani’s armed patrols were accused of
killing 32 people and injuring 69 in the fight against illegal timber
operators, The Forest Trust (TFT), a
Geneva-based international charity, reported.
Perhutani
lost its SFM certification in 2002 and required TFT’s assistance to define a
course of action to regain it, said Scott Poynton, TFT’s executive director.
The
program, “Drop the Guns,” began in 2003, with Perhutani providing a share of
timber sales and non-timber forest products to forest communities. In exchange,
villagers took on a new role as guardians of the forests. But both parties only
laid down all their weapons in 2009, which explained why the deadly fights
continued until 2008, Poynton said.
“Peace
remains fragile because the underlying cause of unequal forest rights is
unresolved. Perhutani can better sell its products, but villagers have received
too little,” said Hasbi Berliani, a program manager at the national good
governance NGO, Kemitraan, quoting an ongoing evaluation by the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences, which shows that poverty among indigenous households has
yet to be alleviated.
“Villagers
have been given $19 million between 2005 and 2010,” said Bambang Sukmananto,
chief executive officer of Perhutani, noting that the 2011 SFM certification
was recognition of the company’s efforts.
Providing
greater forest rights to indigenous people is a growing trend across Asia,
aimed not only at safeguarding the livelihoods of villagers but also at
improving environmental protection.
IRIN
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