Jakarta Globe, Suzannah Beiner, July 16, 2013
Mismanagement and corruption has cost Indonesia’s forestry industry an estimated US$7 billion in lost revenue between 2007 and 2011, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Monday.
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| A tugboat pushes a barge carrying logs on the Kampar River in Riau, Indonesia, on May 5, 2013. (EPA Photo/bagus Indahono) |
Mismanagement and corruption has cost Indonesia’s forestry industry an estimated US$7 billion in lost revenue between 2007 and 2011, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Monday.
The report,
an update of the 2009 HRW report “Wild Money,” highlights the disconnect
between the country’s revamped forestry policies and uncontrolled forest fires,
causing harmful smog in Indonesia and neighboring countries.
Indonesia’s
most recent forestry reforms have been hailed as a part of the government’s
commitment to a sustainable “green growth” model.
However,
new laws have been criticized for not being tough enough on the very violations
they are supposed to deter.
The House
of Representative’s approval last Tuesday of the Law on Preventing and
Eradicating Forest Destruction, an amendment to the 1999 law, was the latest of
such measures.
The new law
notably focuses on large-scale, systematic destruction to forests.
HRW called
the steps “manifestly inadequate” in addressing undocumented logging and
illegally set fires.
“The return
of the smog is only the most tangible evidence of the damage from Indonesia’s
continuing failure to effectively manage its forests,” HRW deputy program
director Joe Saunders said.
Less
readily evident but equally damaging to the government’s claim of pursuing a
“green growth” model, are records of a very red budget.
HRW places
the loss in revenue for 2011 alone at more than $2 billion, a figure greater
than Indonesia’s entire health budget for the year.
Additionally,
the new report details the government’s lack of transparency concerning
forestry practices.
The
government has imposed stricter limitations on information accessible to
independent organizations.
This has
particularly affected government and environmental watchdog organizations.
The
most-recently passed laws affecting the activities of nongovernmental groups
include tighter definitions of legally permissible activities, restricted
access to foreign funding and the government’s ability to disband groups posing
a threat to the “national interest.”
Forest
communities have perhaps been the hardest hit by the government’s practices.
Forest
communities have constitutionally recognized rights to use surrounding land or
receive compensation upon their destruction. But a new certification system may
not honor those rights because the system itself fails to determine whether the
timber harvested is collected in violation of communities’ rights.
The
government’s failure to address compensatory issues has led to land disputes
between villagers and palm oil companies.
The limited
land available for palm oil companies’ expansion has led to an increase in
violence.
In 2011, a
land dispute erupted into a violent clash leaving two farmers and seven palm
oil employees dead after the villagers’ complaints went unresolved in the
Mesuji sub-district of South Sumatra.
The
increase in conflict has created an increased military presence to handle
disputes.
“The
Indonesian government has been selling the expansion of its forestry sector as
an example of sustainable ‘green growth’ and an antidote to climate change and
poverty, but the evidence suggests otherwise,” Saunders said.
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