Illegal Timber Seizures a Drop in the Ocean at Kutai National Park

Jakarta Globe, Tunggadewa Mattangkilang, December 9, 2013

Logging, both illegal and legal as in this photo in East Kalimantan — is rapidly
wiping out Kalimantan’s remaining primary forest. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)

Forestry police in East Kalimantan’s Kutai National Park have this year managed to confiscate a total of 80 cubic meters of illegally logged timber, much of it endangered species.

Hernowo, chief of management for the park’s Sangata I area said on Sunday that the Rp 600 million ($50,000) worth of timber they were able to secure from illegal loggers this year was a small amount in comparison to the estimated total illegal logging in the park.

“Those [were secured] from the regular patrol team and the joint team. There are many other cases that are yet to be revealed, because that timber was gathered from an area of 42,000 hectares, which is guarded by only 20 people,” said Hernowo, adding that just six suspects had been arrested this year to date.

“Most of them [illegal loggers] cut Borneo ironwood and meranti and the price at which it is sold is very high.”

The Borneo ironwood tree, known locally as ulin , was the single most targeted timber species in the park, because of high demand for it in East Asia, where it is typically smuggled by way of Malaysia.

The wood, described as one of the densest and most durable timbers in the world, typically sells for around $2,000 per cubic meter abroad, but it is banned for export by the Indonesian government.

In addition to insufficient law enforcement officers in the area, the existence of communities living inside the Kutai National Park was among the greatest contributing factors hampering the elimination of illegal logging in the park, Hernowo said. In many cases, he said, local residents work together with illegal loggers, warning them of any patrol officers.

According to data by the Central Statistics Agency (BSP), a total of 26,800 people have been living inside the national park since the 1990s, where they make a living out of farming and breeding livestock.

“However, lands inside the national park are mostly owned by employees of companies who had purchased the land from local residents who no longer live there,” he said.

The Kutai National Park has a total area of approximately 199,000 hectares, and comprises coastal mangroves, lowlands rainforest and freshwater swamps.

It is among the most important conservation areas in the country with vulnerable and rare fauna making their home within its borders, including orangutan and proboscis monkey.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said last week illegal logging had become a major threat to the nation, with the potential to accelerate extinctions and worsen flooding.

“Landslides and floods will continue to haunt [Indonesia] and Indonesian animals will become extinct if this [illegal logging] continues,” Zulkifli said during National Tree-Planting Day in West Sumatra on Wednesday.

He added that discussions on the draft bill on prevention and eradication of illegal logging, which includes severe penalties for forestry crimes, was still ongoing, and that he hoped the bill would soon be ratified.