World Rainfores Movement
Excerpted and adapted from "Social conflict and environmental disaster:
A report on Asia Pulp and Paper's operations in Sumatra, Indonesia", by
Rivani Noor and Rully Syumanda, August 2006,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Indonesia/Book8.pdf
Indonesia has the world's third largest area of tropical forest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although only 1.3 per cent of the world's total forest area, Indonesia's forests are home to 10 per cent of the world's flora species, 12 per cent of the world's mammals, 17 per cent of the world's reptiles and amphibians, and 17 per cent of the world's birds. Indonesia is the second country in the world in terms of wildlife richness. Indonesia's forests are also home to endangered
species such as orangutan, tigers, rhinos and Asian elephants.
Forests are the second largest contributor to the Indonesian national economy after oil. The State used revenue from the forests to maintain its power during the 32 year New Order regime under the former President Suharto. Forestry operations - in the form of forest concessions (Hak Pengusahaan Hutan - HPHs), industrial tree plantations (Hutan Tanaman Industri - HTIs) and other plantations (such as oil palm and rubber) - were distributed among the ruler's families, friends and partners, among key military officers and political elites as a reward for their loyalty. Those who controlled the forests had considerable wealth and power.
For forest-dependent village communities, forests have a completely different meaning. Abusive and destructive forest management has stripped forests and has greatly affected the rural poor. For these people, forests embrace cultural values. Most rural communities living outside the densely-populated islands of Java, Bali and Madura practice a combination of subsistence and commercial agriculture with gogo rice (upland, unirrigated rice), other annual crops and tree crops. They also collect various forest products, such as rattan, honey, resins, herbs, fruits, fish and wildlife, for both commercial and domestic purposes. About seven million people in Sumatra and Kalimantan rely for their livelihoods on their rubber gardens, which cover a total area of about 2.5 million hectares. In Sumatra, local communities manage about four million hectares of forest using various agroforestry practices which combine natural forest management and fruit gardens, without external aid.
Forest communities have a profound understanding of traditional forest management, which they inherited from their ancestors. This traditional forest management has been specifically acknowledged in the 1945 National Constitution.
As most forest peoples have no written or official certificates of ownership, the state under President Suharto ignored indigenous rights and exercised control over Indonesia's vast, profitable forest lands. Suharto's "New Order" regime included a development agenda which was driven by logging the country's forests. The state claimed more than 90 per cent of the total forest land outside Java. This so-called "state forest" was designated without either due process or proper compensation
for local communities. Mature forests which had been managed sustainably by indigenous communities for generations and which were rich in flora and fauna, were exploited for timber and converted into vast plantations of monocultures of exotic fast-growing trees.
The rapid expansion and development of wood processing industries exceeded the supply capacity of production forest areas and the plantations. As a result, the loggers expanded ever deeper into natural forests, logging in protected areas as well as state forest still claimed by indigenous communities. The World Bank, which has more recently produced critiques of illegal logging driven by the over-development of the pulp industry, is itself partly responsible for the problem. In the 1980s, the World Bank was one of the agencies involved in promoting the expansion of the pulp and paper industry. In 1984, for example, the World Bank financed a study, carried out by Finnish forestry consulting firm Jaakko Pöyry, aimed at "strengthening the structure of the Indonesian pulp and paper industry".
A research from the Indonesian NGO WALHI indicates that at least 72 per cent of the country's forests have been destroyed. In a press release in 2004, WALHI pointed out that the deforestation rate in Indonesia had reached 3.8 million hectares annually, the highest rate of forest loss in the world. To put this rate of forest destruction into perspective, this means that an area of forest equivalent to six football pitches is destroyed in Indonesia every minute. Based on this calculation, every minute the Government of Indonesia loses US$1,300 in unpaid tax and customs (three times the average annual income of an Indonesian family), while a few conglomerates and elite business people pocket US$24,000 from the theft of Indonesia's forests.
The impacts of this rapid deforestation have been widespread and various. Impacts on the environment include the loss of unique biodiversity, increasing occurrence of floods and drought, decreasing water quality and quantity, and increasing occurrence of forest fires that pollute the air and contribute to global climate change.
Although more and more people have become aware of the environmental impacts, they know little about and rarely discuss the impacts of illegal logging on human rights. The over-capacity of the wood processing industry and the inability of industrial tree plantations to supply the demands of this industry have driven the destructive exploitation of Indonesia's forests, both legal and illegal. As in other sectors that are illicitly profitable, criminal networks play an important role as blackmailers and protectors of illegal operations, which unhesitatingly use violence to put down opposition to their operations. In Indonesia, the illegal sector and the use of violence are often linked to governmental officials.
Ironically, deforestation and the loss of local communities' livelihoods are driven by government policies which the government claimed were designed to bring prosperity to the nation. Suharto's development concept, like the one adopted by many emerging industrialised countries, was to accelerate the expansion of the economy through natural resource exploitation. However, the goal of expansion of the economy became less important and was eventually, replaced by Suharto's agenda to
consolidate his power through political patronage, where he handed out permits for exploitation of natural resources. More than 62 million hectares of forest land were awarded as forestry concessions (HPHs), without a proper tendering process, to tycoons and state-owned forestry companies that had family ties to Suharto's family, or ties to the military. Although Suharto fell in 1998, the nation still lives with his regime's legacy of bad forestry governance and law enforcement.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
September 21st: International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations
In many southern countries monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment.
In the year 2004, following an initiative of the Brazilian “Network against the Green Desert,” an organization with a long track record of resistance to tree plantations, 21 September -national tree day- was chosen as a significant date to commemorate internationally the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.
In spite of the innumerable complaints against the impacts of these plantations, governments continue to promote forestry plans consisting of a package of legislative measures promoting large-scale plantations, mainly through subsidies, tax exemptions, soft loans, land concessions or other promotional mechanisms.
Those policies are increasingly being challenged by organizations and communities in affected areas and what follow are opinions from some campaigners in Africa, Asia and Latin America on this third International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations.
Soumitra Ghosh, from NESPON and National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers says: “India has a long experience of monoculture plantations that have destroyed forests and pastures, and livelihoods of people. We want no more monocultures and demand that the Government makes no attempt to hand over forest land to industrial houses for raising more eucalyptus or pine plantations. Let monocultures be banned everywhere.”
"Timber plantation expansion now being promoted by the South African government in the Eastern Cape province will not benefit local communities. Instead they will only bring more suffering to an already impoverished and marginalised region." said Wally Menne, chairperson of the Timberwatch NGO Coalition. He concluded saying that "The South African government must reverse its decision to promote the expansion of unsustainable timber plantations and should rather assist rural communities with sustainable projects around organic food production, tourism and small-scale manufacturing, that will genuinely help to ensure their long term welfare and self-reliance."
In the case of Chile, Lucio Cuenca, Director of the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts, affirmed "that if the Government really wants people to believe in its slogan of 'Citizen Government' it should first eliminate the laws the dictatorship enacted to make the rich, richer and which even now are still in force, such as Decree 701 that gave subsidies and special credits and tax breaks to carry out plantations." Cuenca also denounced that the companies have managed to implement new strategies getting the State bodies to grant even greater amounts of public funds for the promotion of plantations. He concluded by saying that "an increasingly impoverished society is subsidising companies that are getting richer all the time. This cannot be defined as ‘citizen government’."
Indonesia has a long history of forest destruction and substitution by large-scale oil palm and pulpwood plantations. Rully Syumanda, from WALHI/Friends of the Earth stresses that “the introduction of oil palm plantations has been made at the expense of forests and forest peoples’ rights and have made local communities poorer. The main issue is therefore that indigenous rights to land are recognised in national legislation and that the right to free, prior and informed consent allows communities to accept or refuse plantations on their land.”
In the case of Brazil, Carla Villanova, from Friends of the Earth, stated that "taking into account the negative impacts of the plantation experience in other parts of Brazil, we totally oppose the State and Federal Governments' plans to support plantation companies." She added that "what is needed is not the support to major industries, but government support to other productive alternatives, benefiting those who really need it."
“Peoples throughout the South are struggling against large scale plantations”, said WRM international coordinator Ricardo Carrere. “On this International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations, we demand that governments put an end to the promotion of these socially and environmentally destructive plantations and to instead support efforts made by local communities to improve their quality of life in harmony with their environment”, he concluded.
Regulation on Land Acquisition
Campaign Updates: July 29th, 2005
Snowballing from the Infrastructure Summit 2005 in January, in May the government issued a presidential regulation (Perpres No. 36/2005) on land acquisition; a regulation many people see as a threat to people’s rights to their land.
The Indonesia Infrastructure Summit 2005, which took place in Jakarta, agreed to a Declaration of Action on Developing Infrastructure and Public Private Partnerships. The declaration was signed by the Coordinating Minister for Economic
Affairs Aburizal Bakrie, World Bank’s Vice President Jemal-ud-din Kassum, Director General of Southeast Asia Department of Asian Development Bank Shamshad Akhtar, Chairman of Indonesian Trade Chamber M. Hidayat and delegates from 19 countries.
At the summit, the government said it needed Rp 1,305 trillion for the development and the improvement of the infrastructure. To meet the need, the government invited domestic and foreign investors to participate in infrastructure projects.
In the first stage, the government has offered 91 projects worth Rp 205.5 trillion to the investors. To back the projects, the government pledges to issue 14 regulations (Media Indonesia, Sunday, 22/05/05).
In May, the government issued Perpres No. 36/2005 on land acquisition for development of public facilities. The regulation met with protests from people who think the regulation strengthens the government’s repressive and authoritarian efforts because the regulation allows the government to revoke people’s property rights to land (Perpres, Chapter II, Article 2(b)). People also see the regulation as the extension of the summit, which is deemed to work in favor of the investors rather than the public.
Walhi’s executive director, Chalid Muhammad, said the Perpres could justify eviction that is often carried out with violence, in the name of public interest. The Perpres could also ignite confrontation between people who lose their rights to their land and the government. “Therefore, the regulation could cause instability among the society. On top of that, it also could lead to violation of human rights,” Chalid said.
The implementation of the Perpres would likely deprive people of their source of livelihood. People who depend on earnings from forest resources or on sidewalk stores, for example, would be among the possible victims.
“We are afraid the government will use the Perpres to evict the people who are been dependent on the forests. The government would have an excuse to use forest for the benefit of investors, who would likely strip the forest to meet their industrial need,” Rully Syumanda, a Walhi campaigner on forestry said in a press conference on Wednesday, June 21.
The Perpres, besides violating a decree of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) on land conflict settlement, also showed that the government was being confused in solving land problems, he added.
“The government has to annul the regulation because the content is against the people,” Usep Setiawan, deputy secretary general of Konsorsium Pembaruan Agraria (KPA) said.
He added that the deliverance of the regulation was premature because it should have been issued after the House passed the bill on land conflict settlement, which is mandated in the MPR’s decree (Tap MPR) No.IX/2001 on land reform and natural resources.
The decree, supported by another decree (Tap MPR No.V/2003), recommends the government and the House to deliberate: (1) Revision of the bill of land reform, (2) bill of land conflict settlement, (3) bill of natural resources management. Therefore, Walhi’s Post of People Against Eviction has organized a movement to challenge the Perpres.
“Considering the danger the Perpres poses, Walhi and other NGOs, united under the Coalition of People for Anti-eviction Movement, invite the public to participate in efforts to reject the Perpres,” Khalisah Khalid, the coordinator of Walhi’s post said.
“Walhi has opened posts at 24 of Walhi’s regional offices to launch a campaign against the Perpres,” she added. “We have scheduled September 20 as the day when we will submit the public support list to the Supreme Court, as a request for judicial review.”
Sumatra´s peat swamp forest threatened with collapse, must be protected
Environmental organizations: Unique forest ecosystem in Riau province, Indonesia must be protected of further damage by loggers and paper industry
Environmental organizations Jikalahari, CAPPA, ROBIN WOOD and Friends of the Earth from Indonesia, Finland and UK warn today that one of the largest tropical peat swamp forests in the world might collapse if logging operations and conversion of peat swamp forests into plantations by the paper companies APRIL and APP continue.
Lowland rainforest on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra has been almost entirely destroyed. The Kampar peninsula in the province of Riau still contains more than 400,000 ha of peat swamp forest making it one of the largest remaining lowland forests in Sumatra. It provides habitat for the Sumatran Tiger and other species threatened with extinction. Destruction of these peat swamp forests releases significant amounts of carbon that may foil intentions to reduce climate change.
Forests in Riau are still being destroyed to meet the demand of pulp and paper companies APP and APRIL. Together the two paper companies have already devastated a million hectares of rainforest to supply their operations with raw material and convert forest into acacia plantations. In the last two years APRIL alone destroyed 50,000 hectares of peat swamp forest in its Pelalawan concession and built a road to access the Kampar peninsula.
The forest on the Kampar peninsula grows on top of more than three meters of peat soil. Due to the ecological fragility of deep peat soils, this type of forest is protected under the Indonesian law. Clearing and draining peat swamp forests cause peat degradation and disastrous fires. The resulting carbon emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect - in Riau province alone the carbon stored in the peat soils amounts to annual carbon emissions from fossil fuels in the whole world.
A study of ProForest, consultants hired by APRIL to assess ecological impacts of plantations in the Kampar Peninsular, indicates that the company has already damaged the water balance of the Kampar peat swamp by building a controversial road and drains that cut the peninsula in half. The existing road, along with further forest conversion and drains planned by APRIL may lead to the collapse of the entire swamp ecosystem. The Kampar peninsula was proposed as a national park by Jikalahari in December 2005 because of its cultural significance, unique biodiversity, ecological properties and importance for the world’s climate.
“Peat swamp forest on Kampar peninsula must be declared protected to stop any further intervention by loggers or the industry, and managed with the full involvement of local communities and indigenous peoples”, said Rully Syumanda, forests campaigner for Friends of the Earth Indonesia.
The environmental organizations demand a full stop to clearing of rainforests for pulp production. “As long as APRIL and APP continue to clear-cut natural forests, businesses, governments and nongovernmental organisations should freeze their relationship with this company” says Jens Wieting, ROBIN WOOD´s rainforest expert.
INDONESIA: THE HEALTH IMPACTS OF LIVING NEAR INDAH KIAT'S PULP AND PAPER MILLS
By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 97, August 2005.
In 1999, the World Bank's Economics of Industrial Pollution Control research team published a report titled "Greening Industry". The report, which was the result of "six years of research, policy experiments, and firsthand observation", described Asia Pulp and Paper's PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper as a "success story".
Indah Kiat's operations at Perawang, Sumatra tell a different story, at least for local people. Indah Kiat started its first pulp mill at Perawang in 1984 with an outdated factory imported from Taiwan. The 100,000 tonnes a year pulp mill used elemental chlorine and wastes were discharged into the Siak River.
According to the World Bank, protests from local villagers about pollution from Indah Kiat's Perawang mill, led to "round one of the mill's cleanup". In 1992, Indonesia's Environmental Impact Management Agency, BAPEDAL, mediated an agreement in which, the World Bank tells us, Indah Kiat agreed to meet the villagers' demands.
Indah Kiat's factory at Perawang now covers an area of 400 hectares and has a capacity of two million tons a year of pulp and 700,000 tons a year of paper. Indah Kiat's new pulp mills use technology that is "largely chlorine free" according to the World Bank. Indah Kiat, the Bank would have us believe, is "an environmental paragon".
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the World Bank's enthusiasm about the environmental benefits of a massive industrial project bears little relation to reality. In 2004, Mats Valentin and Kristina Bjurling, researchers with Swedish NGO SwedWatch, reported that Indah Kiat uses a mixture of chlorine bleaching and elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching. Indah Kiat's management told SwedWatch that the company planned to change fully to ECF technology in the future, but added that "such an investment would be too large to bear right now".
In 2001, John Aglionby of the UK Guardian newspaper visited Indah Kiat's mill in Perawang. He described what he saw as "a monster blot on the landscape". The company's track record "has been a catalogue of environmental devastation, blatant disrespect for the local community and ignoring Indonesia's laws through a mixture of bullying and pay-offs to officials," Aglionby wrote. The journalist uncovered a list of payments made by Indah Kiat to government officials, police and army officers.
Six years research, it seems, did not help the World Bank's ace research team to uncover any pay-offs to government officials. The Bank's "Greening Industry" states simply that Indah Kiat's operation in Perawang "is fully compliant with national pollution regulations".
A year after the "Greening Industry" report came out, Inge Altemeier, a German film- maker, visited Sumatra to investigate the impact of pollution from pulp mills on local people and their environment.
She found and filmed an illegal outlet from Indah Kiat's mill, which the company used at night. During the day the output was not in use, but the air stank and dead fish floated in the river.
In a village near Indah Kiat's mill, people complained about the bad smell and told the film-maker that they were suffering from itching, headaches and vomiting. A villager called Tasjudin showed Altemeier his garden. Since Indah Kiat arrived, there are no more coconuts on his trees. The fruit on his trees is covered in black spots and it rots before it ripens. "Indah Kiat is ruining our lives. But what am I to do? This is my home, I have to live here," Tasjudin said.
Before Indah Kiat built its pulp mill, people could fish in the Siak River. They used the river for drinking water and for bathing in. Since villagers can no longer drink from the river, they demanded that Indah Kiat provide them with clean water. The company gave them a water pump. But villagers found that the ground water was also polluted and smelled bad. Villagers are forced to buy bottled water to drink. Many still wash in the river because there is not enough pumped water especially in the dry season.
Trabani Rab is a medical professor who has been monitoring the impacts of Indah Kiat's mill on villagers' health for several years. Altemeier travelled with him as he visited villages on the River Siak. In two days, he diagnosed more than 500 cases of serious skin diseases.
Earlier this year, two Indonesian NGO researchers, Rully Syumanda, Forest Campaigner with WALHI, and Rivani Noor, from the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy, interviewed people in villages near to Indah Kiat's mill in Perawang. They also spoke to people living in Perawang. Villagers told them their vegetables, chillies and flowers did not grow normally, especially in the dry season. During the rainy season, a many of the villagers' hens and ducks die. They told the researchers they were sure that the cause was the smoke containing harmful chemicals from Indah Kiat's mill.
From 1987 to 1996, the air smelled very bad, villagers said. It has improved since Indah Kiat installed a filtering system on factory chimneys. But the air is still polluted and still causes respiratory problems, especially for visitors.
Villagers told Syumanda and Noor that before the mill started operations, fishers could catch 40 to 50 kilogrammes of fish a day in the Siak River. Today, they are lucky to catch four or five kilogrammes. Sometimes, they said, the river smells really bad and they cannot catch anything. Every month, the river gives off a bad smell for a week.
While consultants and financiers of Indah Kiat defend the company by pointing to company records of emissions from its factories, the smell, the pollution, the poisoned river and the dead fish remain. Local people continue to suffer from headaches, itching and incurable skin diseases. Far from being an "environmental paragon", Indah Kiat is destroying lives and livelihoods.
Related articles
In 1999, the World Bank's Economics of Industrial Pollution Control research team published a report titled "Greening Industry". The report, which was the result of "six years of research, policy experiments, and firsthand observation", described Asia Pulp and Paper's PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper as a "success story".
Indah Kiat's operations at Perawang, Sumatra tell a different story, at least for local people. Indah Kiat started its first pulp mill at Perawang in 1984 with an outdated factory imported from Taiwan. The 100,000 tonnes a year pulp mill used elemental chlorine and wastes were discharged into the Siak River.
According to the World Bank, protests from local villagers about pollution from Indah Kiat's Perawang mill, led to "round one of the mill's cleanup". In 1992, Indonesia's Environmental Impact Management Agency, BAPEDAL, mediated an agreement in which, the World Bank tells us, Indah Kiat agreed to meet the villagers' demands.
Indah Kiat's factory at Perawang now covers an area of 400 hectares and has a capacity of two million tons a year of pulp and 700,000 tons a year of paper. Indah Kiat's new pulp mills use technology that is "largely chlorine free" according to the World Bank. Indah Kiat, the Bank would have us believe, is "an environmental paragon".
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the World Bank's enthusiasm about the environmental benefits of a massive industrial project bears little relation to reality. In 2004, Mats Valentin and Kristina Bjurling, researchers with Swedish NGO SwedWatch, reported that Indah Kiat uses a mixture of chlorine bleaching and elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching. Indah Kiat's management told SwedWatch that the company planned to change fully to ECF technology in the future, but added that "such an investment would be too large to bear right now".
In 2001, John Aglionby of the UK Guardian newspaper visited Indah Kiat's mill in Perawang. He described what he saw as "a monster blot on the landscape". The company's track record "has been a catalogue of environmental devastation, blatant disrespect for the local community and ignoring Indonesia's laws through a mixture of bullying and pay-offs to officials," Aglionby wrote. The journalist uncovered a list of payments made by Indah Kiat to government officials, police and army officers.
Six years research, it seems, did not help the World Bank's ace research team to uncover any pay-offs to government officials. The Bank's "Greening Industry" states simply that Indah Kiat's operation in Perawang "is fully compliant with national pollution regulations".
A year after the "Greening Industry" report came out, Inge Altemeier, a German film- maker, visited Sumatra to investigate the impact of pollution from pulp mills on local people and their environment.
She found and filmed an illegal outlet from Indah Kiat's mill, which the company used at night. During the day the output was not in use, but the air stank and dead fish floated in the river.
In a village near Indah Kiat's mill, people complained about the bad smell and told the film-maker that they were suffering from itching, headaches and vomiting. A villager called Tasjudin showed Altemeier his garden. Since Indah Kiat arrived, there are no more coconuts on his trees. The fruit on his trees is covered in black spots and it rots before it ripens. "Indah Kiat is ruining our lives. But what am I to do? This is my home, I have to live here," Tasjudin said.
Before Indah Kiat built its pulp mill, people could fish in the Siak River. They used the river for drinking water and for bathing in. Since villagers can no longer drink from the river, they demanded that Indah Kiat provide them with clean water. The company gave them a water pump. But villagers found that the ground water was also polluted and smelled bad. Villagers are forced to buy bottled water to drink. Many still wash in the river because there is not enough pumped water especially in the dry season.
Trabani Rab is a medical professor who has been monitoring the impacts of Indah Kiat's mill on villagers' health for several years. Altemeier travelled with him as he visited villages on the River Siak. In two days, he diagnosed more than 500 cases of serious skin diseases.
Earlier this year, two Indonesian NGO researchers, Rully Syumanda, Forest Campaigner with WALHI, and Rivani Noor, from the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy, interviewed people in villages near to Indah Kiat's mill in Perawang. They also spoke to people living in Perawang. Villagers told them their vegetables, chillies and flowers did not grow normally, especially in the dry season. During the rainy season, a many of the villagers' hens and ducks die. They told the researchers they were sure that the cause was the smoke containing harmful chemicals from Indah Kiat's mill.
From 1987 to 1996, the air smelled very bad, villagers said. It has improved since Indah Kiat installed a filtering system on factory chimneys. But the air is still polluted and still causes respiratory problems, especially for visitors.
Villagers told Syumanda and Noor that before the mill started operations, fishers could catch 40 to 50 kilogrammes of fish a day in the Siak River. Today, they are lucky to catch four or five kilogrammes. Sometimes, they said, the river smells really bad and they cannot catch anything. Every month, the river gives off a bad smell for a week.
While consultants and financiers of Indah Kiat defend the company by pointing to company records of emissions from its factories, the smell, the pollution, the poisoned river and the dead fish remain. Local people continue to suffer from headaches, itching and incurable skin diseases. Far from being an "environmental paragon", Indah Kiat is destroying lives and livelihoods.
Related articles
- November 2004 - Social and environmental impacts of industrial tree plantations
- March 2002 - The Pulp Invasion: The international pulp and paper industry in the Mekong Region
- More articles about the pulp and paper industry here.
Forest Fires Sweep Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra
Jakarta, 11 September 2006
Officials in Indonesia say illegal burning to clear land has caused rampant wildfires across Borneo and Sumatra. Fires have destroyed millions of hectares of forest and farmland over the last month, and environmentalists and the government disagree over who is responsible for the destruction. 
Officials of Indonesia's Forestry Ministry say eight million hectares have gone up in smoke over the last month, and fires are still burning out of control on the island of Borneo.
Government officials point to small farmers who use fires to clear land quickly and cheaply. But environmentalists blame Indonesia's failure to enforce logging controls and a ban on land-clearing fires.
The fires are a recurring problem in Indonesia. As in the past, a thick haze of smoke now threatens to disrupt air traffic in the affected area, and is causing health problems for people in nearby Malaysia and Singapore. Windborne smoke in Singapore is also worrying organizers of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week.
Israr works with the Indonesian government's office that monitors forest fires by satellite. He says more than 100 "hotspots" were burning Monday on Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, with tens of thousands recorded over the last month. He says the government's forestry staff is still assessing the causes.
"We don't know yet until we know the exact information from the ground," he said. "We'll get some reports, and we have a call center here, so all the field staff will report to here, where's the fire and what is the action in the field."
Indonesian officials say the majority of the hotspots have appeared in small community farming areas. The country's forestry minister says 60 percent of the burned area is farmland, and the rest is forest.
Rully Syumanda, an activist with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, says big companies violate the countries laws more than the farmers.
According to a recent report by his organization, 80 percent of forest fires in Indonesia are caused by companies clearing land on big plantations, timber estates, and protected areas.
Syumanda says some of the government's efforts to prosecute firms are undermined by the country's criminal code, because police must provide evidence or eyewitnesses to show the fires were set on purpose. He says while penalties for illegal burning are severe, prosecutors are not able to make the charges stick.
He also says monitoring has not been thorough enough, and the police are not going after the right people. He says nomadic farmers who burn fields and big companies converting forest land for plantations or industrial uses are being treated the same.
On Monday, the country's police chief announced that 75 people currently face charges for illegally starting fires. The suspects' names have not been released.
INDONESIA: THE INSATIABLE APPETITE OF THE PULP INDUSTRY
By Chris Lang. Published in WRM Bulletin 101, December 2005.
Based on a presentation by Rully Syumanda and Rivani Noor at an International Meeting on Plantations, 21-25 November 2005 in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil (organised by WRM/FASE-ES/GJEP).
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is one of the world's largest pulp and paper companies. The company is responsible for large-scale deforestation of Indonesia's forests. APP has also generated a number of not-yet-settled conflicts with local communities in Indonesia.
Forthcoming research by Rully Syumanda, Friends of the Earth Indonesia/WALHI's forest campaigner and Rivani Noor of the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy (CAPPA) documents the company's grim record in Sumatra.
"We in Indonesia are facing so many battles about forest destruction, including tree plantations and the oil palm industry," said Syumanda at the start of his presentation. There are seven pulp mills, 65 paper mills and 10 pulp and paper mills in Indonesia. We are focussing on the biggest - APP's pulp and paper mill in Riau. "We face problems because of APP's plans to become the world's biggest pulp and paper exporter," said Syumanda. "The Indonesian government supports the growth of this industry."
Foresters working in APP argue that the company is rapidly developing plantations in order to supply its pulp mills without continuing to cut down old-growth forests. "APP is the golden boy of the Forest Department," said Syumanda, "because logging, plantations, pulp and paper dominate all."
But this industry is not serious about developing plantations. Plantations still supply only 30 per cent of the raw material needed. Destructive logging and/or illegal logging provides much of the rest. APP is converting forest to plantations. The company has used subsidies from the rehabilitation fund, which should have been used for recovering forest areas. Vast areas of APP's concessions overlap with community lands.
The main problem, Syumanda explained, is the over-capacity of the industry. The sheer scale of the industry means that land tenure conflicts cannot be resolved equitably. There is no protocol for solving the problems caused. But the government is not concerned about overcapacity. Instead it likes to keep the attention on illegal logging. "This has impacts," explained Syumanda. "Several peasants and farmers have been arrested for clearing their farmland for their own needs."
Any idea of restructuring the industry, including reducing its size, has been brushed aside by the need for fast money, at least partly to repay the company's huge debts. APP's debt, at almost US$14 billion, is the largest debt of any company in Southeast Asia.
Violence, human rights abuses, water and air pollution, forest fires and floods have become business as usual for the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia.
"Now we face the next challenge", said Syumanda. The government plans to develop another five million hectares of acacia pulp wood plantations. This is in addition to the two million hectares it plans to plant to oil palm in the middle of Borneo, and perhaps another eight million hectares of oil palm around the archipelago. "It's crazy," Syumanda concluded.
During the 1970s, the Indonesian government declared 140 million hectares of land as state forests, "thus asserting state control over forest resources traditionally managed by tens of thousands of local communities," added Patrick Anderson, Policy Advisor at WALHI. As with industrial logging concessions, the government gives out concessions to the pulp and paper industry regardless of who lives there and who traditionally used the forest.
One of the few rules by which the pulp and paper industry operates in Indonesia is that you build the pulp mill first - the plantations follow. "So for at least the first ten years, while the plantations are planted and growing, the mill will use natural forests as raw material," explained Anderson.
Indonesia has about 50 million indigenous people, with about 1,000 different languages. Although in theory indigenous land rights are recognised in Indonesia, the government does not follow its laws that recognize customary rights. Now that the plywood industry is in decline due to lack of big trees, the government is doing all it can to create an export economy in the pulp and paper sector.
Rivani Noor pointed out that on Sumatra there simply isn't enough forest left for the pulp industry to keep expanding. So APP has started pulp mills and plantation operations in China. But as with the mills in Sumatra, APP failed to secure raw material supplies before starting up its mills in China. As a result, woodchips from Sumatra's forests will be exported to supply APP's operations in China. APP also has a new concession in Kalimantan.
There are an additional three pulp mills proposed for Kalimantan. The South Korean Korindo Group has produced a feasibility study for a pulp and paper mill in Central Kalimantan. A group of Indian and Malaysian investors have filed a proposal with the Ministry of Forestry for a US$1.3 billion pulp and paper mill. If it goes ahead, the project would convert about 300,000 hectares of forest into plantations. Singapore-listed firm United Fibre Systems (UFS) is planning a project for South Kalimantan and is looking to secure European financial support. UFS is also in the process of taking over the existing Kiani Kertas mill in East Kalimantan, with Deutsche Bank acting as financial advisor to the company.
Not willing to limit its forest destruction to the island of Sumatra, the pulp and paper industry is busy planning its expansion into Kalimantan. If it does so, the results will be predictable and disastrous for people and forests.
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Based on a presentation by Rully Syumanda and Rivani Noor at an International Meeting on Plantations, 21-25 November 2005 in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil (organised by WRM/FASE-ES/GJEP).
Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) is one of the world's largest pulp and paper companies. The company is responsible for large-scale deforestation of Indonesia's forests. APP has also generated a number of not-yet-settled conflicts with local communities in Indonesia.
Forthcoming research by Rully Syumanda, Friends of the Earth Indonesia/WALHI's forest campaigner and Rivani Noor of the Community Alliance for Pulp Paper Advocacy (CAPPA) documents the company's grim record in Sumatra.
"We in Indonesia are facing so many battles about forest destruction, including tree plantations and the oil palm industry," said Syumanda at the start of his presentation. There are seven pulp mills, 65 paper mills and 10 pulp and paper mills in Indonesia. We are focussing on the biggest - APP's pulp and paper mill in Riau. "We face problems because of APP's plans to become the world's biggest pulp and paper exporter," said Syumanda. "The Indonesian government supports the growth of this industry."
Foresters working in APP argue that the company is rapidly developing plantations in order to supply its pulp mills without continuing to cut down old-growth forests. "APP is the golden boy of the Forest Department," said Syumanda, "because logging, plantations, pulp and paper dominate all."
But this industry is not serious about developing plantations. Plantations still supply only 30 per cent of the raw material needed. Destructive logging and/or illegal logging provides much of the rest. APP is converting forest to plantations. The company has used subsidies from the rehabilitation fund, which should have been used for recovering forest areas. Vast areas of APP's concessions overlap with community lands.
The main problem, Syumanda explained, is the over-capacity of the industry. The sheer scale of the industry means that land tenure conflicts cannot be resolved equitably. There is no protocol for solving the problems caused. But the government is not concerned about overcapacity. Instead it likes to keep the attention on illegal logging. "This has impacts," explained Syumanda. "Several peasants and farmers have been arrested for clearing their farmland for their own needs."
Any idea of restructuring the industry, including reducing its size, has been brushed aside by the need for fast money, at least partly to repay the company's huge debts. APP's debt, at almost US$14 billion, is the largest debt of any company in Southeast Asia.
Violence, human rights abuses, water and air pollution, forest fires and floods have become business as usual for the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia.
"Now we face the next challenge", said Syumanda. The government plans to develop another five million hectares of acacia pulp wood plantations. This is in addition to the two million hectares it plans to plant to oil palm in the middle of Borneo, and perhaps another eight million hectares of oil palm around the archipelago. "It's crazy," Syumanda concluded.
During the 1970s, the Indonesian government declared 140 million hectares of land as state forests, "thus asserting state control over forest resources traditionally managed by tens of thousands of local communities," added Patrick Anderson, Policy Advisor at WALHI. As with industrial logging concessions, the government gives out concessions to the pulp and paper industry regardless of who lives there and who traditionally used the forest.
One of the few rules by which the pulp and paper industry operates in Indonesia is that you build the pulp mill first - the plantations follow. "So for at least the first ten years, while the plantations are planted and growing, the mill will use natural forests as raw material," explained Anderson.
Indonesia has about 50 million indigenous people, with about 1,000 different languages. Although in theory indigenous land rights are recognised in Indonesia, the government does not follow its laws that recognize customary rights. Now that the plywood industry is in decline due to lack of big trees, the government is doing all it can to create an export economy in the pulp and paper sector.
Rivani Noor pointed out that on Sumatra there simply isn't enough forest left for the pulp industry to keep expanding. So APP has started pulp mills and plantation operations in China. But as with the mills in Sumatra, APP failed to secure raw material supplies before starting up its mills in China. As a result, woodchips from Sumatra's forests will be exported to supply APP's operations in China. APP also has a new concession in Kalimantan.
There are an additional three pulp mills proposed for Kalimantan. The South Korean Korindo Group has produced a feasibility study for a pulp and paper mill in Central Kalimantan. A group of Indian and Malaysian investors have filed a proposal with the Ministry of Forestry for a US$1.3 billion pulp and paper mill. If it goes ahead, the project would convert about 300,000 hectares of forest into plantations. Singapore-listed firm United Fibre Systems (UFS) is planning a project for South Kalimantan and is looking to secure European financial support. UFS is also in the process of taking over the existing Kiani Kertas mill in East Kalimantan, with Deutsche Bank acting as financial advisor to the company.
Not willing to limit its forest destruction to the island of Sumatra, the pulp and paper industry is busy planning its expansion into Kalimantan. If it does so, the results will be predictable and disastrous for people and forests.
Related articles
- January 2006 - Indonesia: Deutsche Bank pulls out of UFS pulp project
- November 2004 - Social and environmental impacts of industrial tree plantations
- March 2002 - The Pulp Invasion: The international pulp and paper industry in the Mekong Region
- More articles about the pulp and paper industry here.
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