W

ith great pleasure I read media reports saying that East Kalimantan Governor Awang Farouk Ishak had asked his district heads and mayors to revoke the permits belonging to mining and oil palm plantation companies that encroach protected forest areas.

I hope that his instructions will be enforced because it is well-known that these government officials tend to turn a blind eye when money is offered.

Some oil palm plantation owners were responsible for the recent deaths of more than 100 orangutans and these criminals but they were only given one-year jail sentences.

A high-ranking East Kalimantan government official told me that the judge who handed down these overly lenient sentences was bribed by the plantation owners. When money talks, the criminal walks. Farouk Ishak should also ask the governors of West, South and Central Kalimantan to issue similar instructions.

Rain forests are the lungs of our nation and serve as the much needed habitat of protected animal species.

The enggang and beo birds, orangutans, clouded leopards, one-horned rhinos and other rare animals are losing their habitats. They are fleeing to rocky mountain areas to avoid being killed but where food is scarce. Several people were recently arrested by customs officials in Pontianak and Banjarmasin for attempting to smuggle more than 200 hornbills out of the country.

These criminals should be executed as this would serve as an example to other smugglers of protected animal species. It hurts to know that these precious birds will be turned into Chinese medicine in order to cure God knows what.

Keep up the good work, Awang Farouk Ishak.

Lynna van der Zee-Oehmke
Bogor