Summary
• Latest estimates are that it will take Indonesia until 2014 to halt illegal logging.
• Devolved authority in the country makes control of forest management difficult.
• Indonesians are increasingly frustrated at the poor environmental image of their timber industry.

Two messages were delivered almost simultaneously on arrival in Jakarta recently. “Stop illegal logging” screamed directly at passengers arriving at the main international airport terminal. Pictures of forest devastated, mainly by palm oil plantings, were in juxtaposition with images of serene tropical forest beauty.

After checking in for a week’s visit, and surfing the web, a useful new regional site www.worldpanelindustry.com announced that the Indonesian government expects that it will take “until 2014 to stop illegal logging”. It reminds one, who lives on the tiny island of Singapore, where everything is under such control, so efficient and legal, just how difficult it must be to govern a country like Indonesia.

With a population of 210 million in five main land masses, stretching over 3,000km, some of which have been granted considerable autonomy since 2001, the task is huge. Central government has devolved power to its regions, especially in such matters as local forest management and policing. If the English resent Scottish lawmaking and its implementation in Britain, then imagine what the Jakarta legislators must feel about controlling legal forest harvesting in remote Papua or in the hills of Nias Island 125km off the coast of Sumatra.

Global reputation

The frustration of many Indonesians at their growing global reputation for products made from illegally harvested wood became increasingly clear as the week progressed. Many professionals are disheartened at their inability to change immediately what they regard as an undeserved image, given the commitment of their government to clamp down on criminal logging.

Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia is one of the many organisations trying to curb the criminals. Frequent calls on government to take action are made by Soewarni, the high-profile and vocal chairwoman of the Forest Industry Revitalisation Body. She says that shortages, which have been killing plywood and wood product manufacturers since 2005, are down to the government’s responsibility for curbing illegal logging. The National Forestry Council, established in 2006, is seeking teeth with which to implement and supervise conservation projects regionally, thus fighting the effects of deforestation, legal or otherwise.

During one week alone, the national press headlined “Green groups want end to mining in forests”; plywood producers “suffered acute shortage of raw material”; “East Kalimantan’s critical forests set off alarm bells”; “Customs office seizes illegal ebony”; “Lawyers call for unity against illegal logging”; and “Forestry community seeks more government involvement”.

The media is inundated with calls for corporate social responsibility programmes for reforestation and conservation and with discussion on the role of forests in climate change. One article suggested that palm oil industry publicists are misleading the public, apparently arguing that “oil palm plantations store and sequester many times the amount of CO2 as natural forests and therefore converting forest for plantations is the best way to fight climate change”, when in fact oil palm planted on peat lands in Indonesia is estimated to contribute 100 tons of CO2 emissions per hectare, according to The Jakarta Post. “Indonesia is still waking up to the hidden cost of releasing the huge store of carbon kept in peat land,” said Daniel Mudiyarso, an expert at Indonesia’s Centre for International Forestry.

Complex mix

The point is that there is no lack of domestic concern for forests and the environment in Indonesia but the difficulty of controlling the forest resource in such a complex mix of inter-departmental ministries and devolved authority makes the task almost impossible. It seems that any progress needs encouragement and Indonesia also needs help and understanding – if not only for the sake of the sustainability of its forests then just for the conscience of all countries, most of which have used Indonesia’s trees at some point.

At the ASEANWOOD show in Jakarta there were many international wood machinery suppliers and a few international timber suppliers, all willing to help on the industry side. All of them have a real vested interest in a healthy forest products industry in Indonesia. All are worried that, in an increasingly competitive world market, Indonesia will lose out as a preferred or even acceptable supplier. Indeed, such countries as the US, which is supplying strategic hardwoods for Indonesian flooring and furniture exporters, will need also to supply its own environmental credentials to a country suffering from a huge image problem, whatever the source of the wood.