Illegal loggers operating in Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL) in the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces have employed various new methods to transport timber stolen from the protected forests without the knowledge of local authorities, the parkâs management has revealed
llegal loggers operating in Mount Leuser National Park (TNGL) in the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces have employed various new methods to transport timber stolen from the protected forests without the knowledge of local authorities, the park's management has revealed.
Speaking at a recent press briefing, TNGL center head Andi Basrul said that one of the new techniques employed by the loggers was the use of minivans to smuggle out illegally logged timber.
Andi said that local authorities had recently managed to foil several attempts by loggers to transport stolen timber using such a method.
During the latest arrest, Andi said that TNGL officers had managed to seize a Toyota Kijang and an Isuzu Panther minivan that had been used to transport timber out of the park.
'The perpetrators modified the vehicles into transport cars to deceive our officers. All the passenger seats in the vehicles had been dismantled to make it easier for them to load the cars with illegally logged timber,' Andi said in his office in Medan, North Sumatra, on Tuesday.
Andi also said that some of the illegally logged timber had already been processed into various products, including door frames, window frames and hoe handles.
The TNGL, according to Andi, managed to foil 19 illegal logging cases during the first six months of the year. Fifteen suspects had been arrested, including two military personnel.
Andi said that rampant illegal logging practices in the TNGL had been partly triggered by the involvement of a military personnel, who usually disguised themselves as civilians to enter the park and protect the activities of illegal loggers.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry's forest security and prevention director, Istanto, who was also present at the press briefing, said that his office was serious in its commitment to deal with illegal logging practices.
Such a commitment, however, must also be supported by assurances from law enforcement officials that they would use specific regulations to charge illegal loggers, and apply severe penalties on those found guilty.
'The Law No. 18/2013 on forest damage prevention and phase-out, which carries a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment for forest crime perpetrators, will hopefully give fresh air to law enforcement in the forestry sector,' he said.
Wildlife Conservation Society Indonesia Program (WCSIP) data revealed that 230,000 hectares of the TNGL's total area of 1,095,592 hectares had already been damaged.
At the same time, the population of rare animals in the park, such as the Sumatra tiger, rhinos, elephants and orangutans, had continued to decrease over the last 20 years.
The number of rhinos, for example, has dropped from 60 in the 1980s to only between 20 and 30 today. The population of the Sumatra tiger, similarly, had decreased from 150 in the 1990s to 100 presently.
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