Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Sawmill owners operating in West Lampung can easily get permits saying wood taken from the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is legal, an activist says.

Joko Santoso from the Lampung chapter of the Illegal Logging Response Center said the local forestry office's failure to properly check up on loggers and enforce regulations, meant the certificates it issued were no better than fakes.

To process timber, sawmill operators must possess small-holding timber permits (IPKTM) issued by the West Lampung Forestry Office. However, according to the law, only operators who grow and harvest their own trees are entitled to the permits.

Joko said an owner of a sawmill on the Krui highway between the Bengkunat and Lemong districts was a known fence of illegal timber and was believed to be part of an illegal logging syndicate operating from Lampung. However, the businessman could not be brought to justice because the company's documents were supposedly in order.

"We have found many (sawmill) operators possess IPKTMs but do not grow the trees they process. They simply buy timber from residents, who take the timber from the national park," Joko said.

The center's data found that the forestry office had issued operating permits for 12 sawmill operators, which produce at least 1,200 cubic meters of sawn timber a month – the equivalent of 2,400 hectares of forested area in the park.

"Since the companies hold these timber processing permits, illegal timber becomes a legal commodity in their hands. They generally use these to dupe the authorities when they conduct illegal logging raids, claiming the timber comes from community forests. But community forests in Lampung no longer produce such timber," Joko said.

West Lampung Forestry Office head Warsito said that any timber trader could apply for an IPKTM permit, which allocates quotas in 100-cubic-meter units for sawn timber. Administrative fees cost Rp 64,500 a cubic meter for meranti wood or Rp 36,500 per cubic meter for racuk wood, he said.

Investigations by the center, however, showed many sawmill operators held permits that were issued without a field inspection, meaning the operators did not have to prove they could meet the quota legally.

"This is when the timber traders come in. Some of them pay residents to steal timber in the national park," Joko said.

Businessmen holding IPKTM permits could also arrange for a license to approve forest products (SKSHH) from the West Lampung Forestry Office, thus legalizing the sale of their sawn timber.

"No one can take timber out of West Lampung without the SKSHH license," Warsito said.

Activists from environmental groups had found that applying for a SKSHH license was easy; officers rarely followed up applications to check them, Joko said, and the whole thing resembled a rubber-stamping process.

National park officer Iwen said forestry officers should ideally check the validity of all the sawn timber they encountered.

"The sawn timber is often of high quality, like meranti wood, which can only be found in the park. If they are carrying such timber, it is most likely being stolen from the park," Iwen said.

West Lampung Military commander Albar Hasan Tanjung said sawmill operators usually attempted to trick authorities by stacking stolen timber from the park behind regular racuk wood or tree resin taken from community forests.

"Offenders usually place the resin at the rear part of the truck. But after unloading, the truck contains kruing, meranti or tenam wood taken from the park. They will not be detained because they usually bring along documents that are supposedly valid," Tanjung said.

A timber trader in West Lampung, Mustalipi, said he held a IPKTM license that entitled him to carry 600 cubic meters of timber of various varieties. He claimed he never took timber from the park but admitted to buying it from residents.

"The residents sell me the timber taken from their farms. I don't know if they take it from the park," he said.

Data from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the Illegal Logging Response Center shows deforestation in the park has reached an alarming rate. Of its 360,000 hectares, around 50 percent has been damaged by illegal logging.

National Park Center head Tamen Sitorus said many residents got involved in illegal logging because it was lucrative – they could earn up to Rp 150,000 a day.

He said that after being felled, the trees were usually floated down one of the 32 rivers flowing through the park before being transported to the sawmills.

The center has recorded 19 known timber drop-off points along the Way Biha, a river that flows through the park and empties at the West Krui coast.

From there, the logs are transported by four-wheel-drive trucks to the main road, and later taken by larger vehicles to the sawmills.