Rather than point her finger at endemic corruption and poor law enforcement, President Megawati Sukarnoputri says rampant illegal logging in Indonesia is due to rising international demand for timber.
"The increased demand for wood in the international market, the higher production of wood-based furniture products and the extension of wood-related industries, inevitably trigger illegal logging," she was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.
She made the comment on Monday during the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, West Java.
The president said Indonesia has limited resources to combat illegal logging but would do its best to halt deforestation. "Surely there are a lot of causes and conditions that lie behind these circumstances. But despite that, we will do our outmost to stop it," she was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.
Megawati said the nation should no longer view forests as an exploitable natural resource, but as assets that should be preserved and protected.
Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim last month said logging would be banned in Java because it had exacerbated this year's severe drought. But analysts say he lacks adequate authority to deal appropriately with illegal logging syndicates.
Environmentalists say widespread corruption and poor law enforcement are the main causes of illegal logging in Indonesia.
Megawati said the government has developed a thorough conservation plan to eradicate illegal logging, fight forest fires, rehabilitate damaged forests, and restructure the forestry sector.
In April, she urged police to cease their involvement in illegal logging and timber smuggling. "It is ironic that police are involved in smuggling amid the government's serious efforts to combat such illegal practices," said the president, who is a keen gardener and former biology student.
Experts estimate about 80% of all logging in Indonesia is illegal and say the problem will take years to overcome, by which time there won't be much left of the country's forests.
Makarim last year asked Greenpeace to help the government combat illegal logging, but he has said little about rounding up and jailing corrupt military officials, police and bureaucrats involved in the timber smuggling business.
Indonesia lost an estimated 40 million hectares of rainforests due to the rampant plunder of forests during the 32-year regime of former president Suharto.
The fall of Suharto in 1998 sparked an increase in the level of unsustainable logging, as powerful regional timber barons – often linked to smuggling networks in neighboring countries and beyond – took advantage of a breakdown in centralized control to take over from the state-sponsored exploitation of the nation's forests.
Environmentalists warn that at the current rate of deforestation in Indonesia, lowland forests will disappear from Sumatra by 2005 and from Kalimantan by 2010, while the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has said tropical forests will disappear from Papua within 15 years unless serious action is taken.
Many illegal logging bosses target national parks and use violence and intimidation to stop anyone who gets in their way. The problem is exacerbated by a lack of law enforcement, the complicity of corrupt police and military officials, and the government's abysmal failure to deal with the problem.
CIFOR was established in 1993 with the aim of using scientific knowledge to influence major decisions affecting the world's tropical forests and the people who depend on them. The center's internationally recruited scientists are based in Bogor but conduct research activities throughout the world in conjunction with several institutional partners. The center has an annual budget of more than $11 million and is involved in research activities in more than 30 countries.
In 1996 the Indonesian government allocated 300,000 hectares of forest in East Kalimantan to CIFOR as a long-term experimental site for developing and testing practices needed to implement sustainable forest management. The Bulungan Research Forest encompasses a number of indigenous groups and a wide range of forest types and human activities.
CIFOR is developing experimental forests in a 3,000-hectare area in Malinau district, East Kalimantan province. The international research agency also maintains a 57-hectare experimental forest around its headquarters in Dermaga, Bogor.