FOREST MAFIA FIGHT FOCUSED ON SUMATRA, KALIMANTAN

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, April 23 (ANTARA) - The government's joint team of investigators from the police force, prosecutor's office and the ministry of forestry will focus its first phase investigations on alleged forest mafia cases in North Sumatra and Central Kalimantan provinces.          "We have set 2010 as the year of law enforcement in the forestry field. In the first phase, investigations will  focus on alleged forest crimes in North Sumatra and Central Kalimantan," Aulia Ibrahim, forest investigation and protection director of the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Preservation (PHKA), said.          In the two provinces, a number of companies are believed to have annexed state forests. In North Sumatra, for example, there are 21 plantation companies which have allegedly annexed state forests. In the first phase, five major firms of the 21 companies will become the operation target of the team.          "Two owners of the five firms have been investigated and those of the other three companies are now in the process of being named suspects," Aulia Ibrahim said.          The joint team is launching operations against forest crimes following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's instruction that mafia behind forest crimes should be eliminated.          The president also instructed all regional government heads, namely governors and district heads to help protect forest in their respective regions.          According to Aulia Ibrahim, all of the regional government heads are also ordered to take stock of damaged forests for rehabilitation purposes.  All forest squatters must be expelled from production, protected and conserved forest areas.          "All forest squatters must get out of production and protected forest areas controlled by the governmet," Aulia Ibrahim said.           In an effort to fight all kinds of forest crimes in the current year of law enforcement in the forestry fields, the government will act indiscriminately upon all forest offenses.          "All violators will be acted upon indiscriminately," Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said meanwhile. The minister even disclosed that the joint team was also conducting an investigation into an alleged forest mafia case at his own ministry.          However, Zulkifli Hasan is still waiting for the results of the investigation. "The joint team of investigators from the police, the prosecutor's office and forestry ministry is still carrying out its investigation. I could not yet disclose how many names now being examined," the minister said after granting a 14,000 hectare community forest concession for five thousand farmers in Lampung province on Thursday.          The investigation is being launched to follow up a report by a number of non-governmental organizations about the presence of forest mafia in the forestry sector. However the minister acknowledged that he has not received any report so far about the results of the joint team's investigation.          "I cannot yet talk a lot about the matter before the team accomplished its task. It is unethical for me to speak about it while the team has not yet finished its investigation," the minister said.          The results of the investigation will be reported to the president. Believing that forest mafia did exist, the president in a cabinet meeting last week ordered the judicial mafia task force to examine various forest offenses whose cases received lenient punishment or even acquitted by the court.          "I believe  a mafia is behind the illegal logging activities. I call on the judicial mafia eradication task force to also tackle this problem, reduce and put an end to these activities," the president said before leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend an Asean summit recently.          According to data, out of a total of  92 illegal logging cases handled in courts recently, 49 ended in acquittals,  24 with jail sentences averaging only  one year and 19 with jail sentences between  one and  two years.          "This will not have a deterrent effect. Therefore, the President has ordered the task force to examine the court verdicts to see why they were so lenient,"   Informatics  and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring said after the cabinet meeting last week..          Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said that the mafia task force would carry out auditing in all regions where illegal logging were still rampant and where forests had been turned into plantations without licenses from the forestry ministry.          "The task force will be fielded to carry out auditing of cases suspected to involve abuse of power by regional government heads, such as the issuance of licenses for conversions of production   and  protected forest functions, and conversion of forests  into oil palm plantations," the minister said.          After all, there are many forest areas and plantation areas are overlapping with each other. In West Kalimantan for example, the local government of a certain district  has issued licenses for plantation firms whose areas overlap those of forests.          "In a certain district, the local government has issued a license for plantation firms to operate on hundreds of thousands of hectares which overlap forest areas," Head of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation of West Kalimantan Forestry Service, Sunarno said.           But he reluctant to mention the name of the district concerned in West Kalimantan.          He revealed that data in 2008 showed the local district government had issued licenses for 42 plantation firms, with areas covering 300,000 hectares. These areas overlapped forest areas.          For this year, the latest data showed that the local government had issued licenses for 84 plantation companies. "Logically, the plantation areas overlapping those of state forests must be wider than the 300,000 hectares," Sunarno said.     (T.A014/A/HAJM/11:57/f001) (T.A014/A/A014/F001) 23-04-2010 12:03