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Stabat court praised for imposing heavy sentence on illegal logger
The decision of the Stabat District Court in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, to declare a man guilty of illegal logging in the Gunung Leuser National Park can create a deterrent effect against other illegal loggers who have damaged the conservation area, an environmental activist says
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T
he decision of the Stabat District Court in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, to declare a man guilty of illegal logging in the Gunung Leuser National Park can create a deterrent effect against other illegal loggers who have damaged the conservation area, an environmental activist says.
Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) country director Noviar Andayani said the WCS-IP appreciated the laws being enforced and the arrest of illegal loggers in the national park.
'The sentence could hopefully create a deterrent effect against other illegal loggers in Indonesia,' she said as quoted by Antara on Sunday.
The environmental activist was commenting on the Stabat District Court's decision to sentence Suriono, who was caught after having illegally logged in the park, to one year and six months in prison and to a fine of Rp 500 million (US$37,500) in a trial on May 26.
Gunung Leuser National Park Conservation Agency officers arrested Suriono in Sawit Seberang district, Langkat, on Feb 1. The officers confiscated 48 pieces of processed wood of various sizes and a minibus the suspect had been using to transport the illegal wood during the arrest. The arrest occurred when he was going to deliver the wood to a timber processing plant in Tandem, Langkat. The wood he was attempting to smuggle was damar (from a kind of tree that produces resin) and meranti stolen from the Barak Induk and Barak Kentongan areas in the national park.
Suriono, a Binjai resident, was charged under Law No.18/2013 on Deforestation Prevention and Elimination.
Gunung Leuser National Park, which straddles the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, is a world heritage site, part of UNESCO's Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra. The national park, which is widely known as a key natural habitat of several protected animal species, is included on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.
Based on WCS-IP data, around 30,000 hectares of forest in Gunung Leuser National Park have been damaged, with the worst deforested area located in Langkat. (ebf)(++++)
