Marianne Kearney, Pangkalanbun – Indonesia's new Forestry Minister, Mr Marzuki Usman, said after touring forests in Kalimantan that he was shocked by the breakneck speed at which the country's parks were being destroyed.
"At the moment we are being ridiculed by all people all over the world because we can't protect our forests." He said this was happening despite Jakarta's promises to international donors to crack down on illegal logging.
After flying over numerous illegal logging trails and camps in the Tanjung Puting National Park at the weekend, he said: "If we do not take action in three to five years, the park will be gone." Park officials say 40 per cent of Tanjung Puting, which is one of the last habitats for wild orang-utans, has been destroyed by logging and forest fires.
Indonesia is home to the world's second largest tropical forest after Brazil, much of which is found in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Irian Jaya.
Mr Marzuki said that despite its pledge to its donors from whom it is seeking a US$4.8-billion loan, Indonesia had failed to make any progress in prosecuting illegal loggers or closing down companies which were found to have purchased timber logged illegally.
The international donors group CGI – which includes donors from Europe, Japan, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank – is meeting today in Jakarta to review Indonesia's commitment to crack down on illegal logging. It would also discuss the government's strategies to combat poverty in the country.
Mr Marzuki announced a presidential instruction to arrest and prosecute illegal loggers and their sawmill bosses in national parks.
He told local mayors and police that the failure of the government and the security forces to prevent illegal logging had embarrassed Indonesia internationally.
"At the moment we are being ridiculed by people all over the world because we cannot protect our forests," he said during a visit to Pangkalanbun on the edges of the park.
Local officials, however, complained that they lacked resources to stop illegal logging and even demanded funds to build a fence around the huge park, which is six times the size of Singapore.
Non-governmental organisations and the former secretary-general for forestry, Mr Suripto, say that the major obstacle in the way of stopping illegal logging is corruption among local forestry officials, the police and the government.
Mr Marzuki said that he would try to circumvent the corrupt local park officials and police by employing special police to guard every river flowing from the park.
In addition, the government last week banned the export of the valuable ramin trees from Tanjung Puting, which is home to many endangered species.
However, aid officials and environmentalists remain sceptical about how the ban will be enforced. "The heart of the problem of illegal logging is corruption, so this ban is only the beginning," said Ms Faith Doherty from the Environmental Investigation Agency.
She said Indonesia still appeared reluctant to investigate some of the well-connected politicians behind the illegal log trade in the park. She cited the case of Golkar legislator Abdul Rasyid, who obtained up to 60 per cent of his logs from the park.
Although the Attorney-General's office and police were provided with the proof of his companies' involvement in buying illegal logs two years ago, the Attorney-General's office claimed that it had no files on the case.
Despite the international donor community's disappointment with the rapid destruction of Indonesia's tropical forests, the World Bank told The Straits Times that the loan was not in danger of being cancelled.
"It is not realistic to delay a poverty loan over forestry issues," said Mr Tom Walton, an environmental adviser at the World Bank.