CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES - INDONESIA'S ILLEGAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000778 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR OES/ENRC, EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP USTR FOR MLINSCOTT, DBROOKS USAID FOR ANE, EGAT [CBARBER, MMELNICK] BANGKOK FOR RDM/A NSC FOR CEQ CONNAUGHTON, VAN DYKE USFS FOR CMACKIE TREASURY FOR KBERG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV EAID KGHG ECON PGOV ID SUBJECT: CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES - INDONESIA'S ILLEGAL LOGGING CHALLENGE ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Recent actions by Indonesian authorities highlight the successes of Indonesia's campaign against illegal logging but also underscore the significant remaining challenges. The Government of Indonesia (GOI) has shown political will and improved interagency cooperation but has to do much more to improve forest governance, with international assistance. The continued clearing of forests, including protected areas, has clear implications for the Heart of Borneo (HOB) Initiative and the eventual success or failure of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programs in Indonesia. End Summary. Enforcement Crackdown Reveals Scale of Problem -------------- - ¶2. (U) A recent crackdown in the port city of Ketapang in West Kalimantan Province highlights the scale and challenge of illegal logging. In a joint operation with national forestry officials that began in mid-March, Indonesian National Police (INP) seized 19 vessels carrying 12,000 illegally harvested logs worth over $23 million. The INP arrested at least 26 suspects and transferred 23 of them to Jakarta for questioning. The joint investigative team estimated from average observed daily volumes that the value of annual exports of illegal timber from the Ketapang region may have reached as much as 32 trillion rupiah (approximately $3.5 billion) -- equivalent to 26 times West Kalimantan's 2008 budget. Last year between late October and early November, police seized 4000 logs worth over 1 billion rupiah (over $100,000) in Ketapang. ¶3. (U) In addition, a joint police, military and forestry team seized 32,000 logs on February 7, as 57 motorboats and as many as 800 persons were transporting the logs down the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan. This followed seizures on the same river of 2,500 round logs and 2,500 planks from mid-late January. Meanwhile, during January, police and forestry officials seized 5,274 mixed logs in Hulu Sungai Utara regency, South Kalimantan, and another 2,000 meranti logs in Kabupaten Sintang, West Kalimantan. Government authorities are frequently reporting similar -- if smaller-scale -- seizures and arrests in other parts of Indonesia. Interagency Cooperation Shows Recent Improvement -------------- --- ¶4. (SBU) This crackdown in West Kalimantan, and Ketapang in particular, point to improved cooperation between the INP and Ministry of Forestry (Dephut) -- between whom relations have been uncooperative if not hostile since mid-2007. Both INP chief, General Sutanto, and Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban, made a point of visiting Ketapang together in early April to assess the situation. This apparent renewed effort at cooperation comes on the heels of a limited cabinet meeting on February 22 at Dephut to discuss illegal logging. After the meeting, President Yudhoyono remarked that he was not satisfied with the results of the anti-illegal logging campaign that he initiated in 2005. He called for an intensification of efforts and improved interagency cooperation and coordination. Corruption: A Clear Challenge -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The recent crackdown underscored the continuing pervasiveness of official corruption and the need to improve governance at all levels. Of the 26 suspects detained, the INP said seven were local and provincial police officers, and another six were local forestry officials. These included the head of the Ketapang forestry office, and the Ketapang police chief. One suspect told the INP he bribed various members of the local police, local military command, forestry officials, and marine security officials for each ship leaving Ketapang laden with timber. One media report said the police investigation indicated these bribes were as high as $13,000 per ship. (Note: The frosty relations between the INP and Dephut since last year stemmed in part from police allegations of widespread corruption among forestry officials in Riau Province on Sumatra. End Note). ¶6. (SBU) A local forestry official in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, told the press that illegal logging surged again in Ketapang after a previous INP team left after conducting operations there in August ¶2007. Given the apparent widespread complicity of local police, the INP's General Supervision Inspectorate summoned the provincial JAKARTA 00000778 002.2 OF 002 police chief, Brigadier-General Zainal Abidin Ishaq, to Jakarta for questioning on April 9. Zainal is not a suspect, but on April 15 General Sutanto issued orders relieving him of his command and reassigning him to INP headquarters in Jakarta. Widespread Logging And Encroachment Continue -------------- ¶7. (SBU) While these actions show that illegal logging is still widespread in West Kalimantan, NGOs and the Indonesian press report rampant and continued clearing of forests elsewhere, including in protected areas. (Note: A U.S. Forest Service team, traveling together with Dephut counterparts, observed signs of this during a February visit to West Kalimantan. End Note). For example, in Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (TNKS),the largest national park in Sumatra and straddling four provinces, park officials say there is evidence of illegal logging up to 4 kilometers within the park boundaries. Furthermore, they point to plans to build as many as 33 roads that would bisect the park in the four provinces. In Aceh, despite a logging moratorium, local residents continue to clear forest to plant oil palm, either for themselves or on behalf of local companies. ¶8. (U) In November 2007, the press reported continued forest clearing in Taman Nasional Kutai (TNK),East Kalimantan and in December the Ministry of Forestry sent 30 forestry police to investigate. Meanwhile, the local Kutai Timur regency government has proposed carving out 24,000 hectares of TNK for encroachers that have settled there in at least seven villages. In West Kalimantan, the park chief of Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang (TNKM) said the park was vulnerable to clearing although it forms a central portion of the HOB, noting that some 21,000 people in 50 villages live within this 1.4 million hectare park (the second largest in Kalimantan). In Taman Nasional Tesso Nilo (TNTN),Riau, the park chief said in October 2007 that forest clearing had affected more than 8,000 of the 38,000-hectare park. Implications for HOB and REDD -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The rampant and continued clearing of forests, including protected areas, has clear implications for the Heart of Borneo (HOB) Initiative, and for the eventual success or failure of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programs in Indonesia. The HOB Initiative covers large portions of West, Central, and East Kalimantan Provinces. Unless the GOI sustains enforcement efforts and forest governance improves, donors and environmental activists will question the credibility of national HOB action plans for conservation and sustainable development. ¶10. (SBU) In his February 22 remarks (para 4),President Yudhoyono clearly connected illegal logging to the GOI's promotion of REDD during the run-up to and after the Bali climate change conference. The GOI hopes for a windfall of carbon credits generated from REDD projects under a post-Kyoto framework (whether from voluntary or mandatory markets). These hopes could founder if buyers and sellers, or governments and donors financing pilots, are not convinced of the integrity of REDD projects -- i.e. that the rate of deforestation will in fact decline, generating real marketable credits. Although Indonesia has the "comparative" advantage (possessing the world's second largest tropical forest area, and the fastest rate of deforestation),other countries could get ahead of Indonesia and reap the carbon market gains if its current efforts falter. HUME