world news - 21.11.2007
Indonesia will need 7 years to stop illegal logging
"We are committed, we have a replanting
program and we are proposing a law," minister Malam Sambat Kaban told
Bloomberg in an interview in Jakarta. "We hope by 2014 the natural
forest will not be disturbed."
Kaban said the forestry ministry is seeking additional powers to find,
arrest, and prosecute illegal loggers. Indonesia currently loses $3
billion to illegal logging each year and is the world's third largest
emitter of greenhouse gases due to deforestation and ecosystem
degradation.
Illegal logging in Indonesia has been difficult to control due to
rampant corruption and competing interests between the central and
provincial governments. Poor monitoring and lack of enforcement mean
few offenders are caught and even fewer are prosecuted: the
Environmental Investigation Agency says that of the 186 suspects
arrested for illegal logging in the past two years, 13 have been
sentenced.
Still environmentalists are hopeful that the December climate meeting
in Bali could provide financial incentives for preserving Indonesia's
forests for the carbon they store. By some estimates, carbon credits
for "avoided deforestation" could generate hundreds of millions in tax
revenue for Indonesia.
See also:
- — Forest glut jams timber mills
- — Wooden peripheral equipment from Japan
- — September was bleak for B.C. manufacturing, forestry sectors
- — Swedish sawmills see signs of slowdown
- — EU directive urges stop for new deciduous forests in Denmark
