'Grave' of illegal logs uncovered

Rizal Harahap , The Jakarta Post , Pekanbaru | Tue, 04/01/2008 12:53 PM | Headlines

Police are still investigating the discovery of around 1,300 cubic meters of buried illegal logs that were recently unearthed by flooding in Kampar regency, Riau.

They said the logs had been confiscated and eyewitnesses would be summoned to identify the owner of the logs, which were believed to have been buried to avoid police raids.

"The flooding was ... a blessing in disguise. It helped the police uncover logs allegedly stolen from the rainforests in the regency. The logs would not have been uncovered had they not been unearthed by the flood," Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Sutjiptadi said over the weekend.

He said police were suspicious of a pulp mill near the site, "but we are still collecting evidence".

The logs, buried on a 1-km plot in Sungai Rantau village, Gunung Sahilan, were discovered during a routine operation conducted by the police.

Sutjiptadi said the burial of logs was a new method to throw off authorities following the crackdown on illegal logging in the province.

In 2007, police confiscated 60,800 cubic meters of illegal logs, 1,800 cubic meters of processed wood and 50,500 cubic meters of plywood, excluding the illegal logs in a seven-kilometer area in Indragiri Hilir regency that were seized from PT Bina Duta Laksana in July 2007.

Executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Riau, Jhony Setiawan Mundung, alleged the illegal logs in Sungai Rantau belonged to a pulp mill in Kampar regency.

"The police should direct their inquiry to the pulp and paper mills because nobody else could bury such a number of logs," he said.

He said many timber companies had been involved in a similar mode of crime and the peatland in the regency was suitable for hoarding logs for years.

Of dozens of approximately 115 alleged illegal logging crimes brought to court, several have been dropped due to lack of evidence, and no one has seen a jail sentence.

Jhony said many timber companies were hoarding their logs, purchased on the black market, until the police chief was replaced.

He called on local authorities to donate the confiscated illegal logs to poor people in the regency to construct homes.

"We fear the seized logs will be auctioned and go into the hands of troubled plywood companies and pulp mills after Sutjiptadi is replaced," he said.

Walhi's data shows the resource-rich province has lost around 160,000 hectares of forest annually, causing Rp 9 trillion per year in losses to the state. By 2006, it had only 1.2 million of 8 million hectares of forest remaining due to illegal logging and the rapid conversion of forests into palm oil plantations.

A moratorium on logging is the only solution to the deteriorating environment, which contributes to natural disasters every year, said Jhony.

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