Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Tsunami-hit Aceh will soon face an environmental disaster if the government keeps on issuing logging concessions in the province's forests, an environmental group says.
Greenomics executive director Elfian Effendi said the quotas totaling 500,000 cubic meters of timber, which the Forestry Ministry awarded to eight logging companies this year, were a huge mistake.
"The huge quota along with the rampant illegal logging in Aceh, means we estimate that by the end of 2006, deforestation in the province will reach 266,000 hectares, or four times the size of Singapore," he said.
A recent study by the group found that between 2002 and 2004, Nanggroe Aceh Darrusalam lost some 350,000 hectares of forests, mostly from illegal logging. About 60 percent of the cut forest was in designated conservation zones.
Aceh's south and west coasts and central Aceh were identified as the worst-hit areas.
Elfian dismissed as "unrealistic" Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban's argument that the quota was necessary to support reconstruction efforts in Aceh.
"The BRR (Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency) has projected it needs four to eight million cubic meters of wood to build more 150,000 houses until 2008. So the quota won't help much because in the first three years it could only provide about 1.6 million cubic meters (of timber)," he said.
Rapid deforestation, he warned, would only bring Aceh more massive disasters. "Forests account for 62 percent of Aceh. That means the province heavily depends on forest products. If deforestation continues, massive floods might hit the province in the near future," he said.
Aceh spans five million hectares of land, in which 2.7 million ha are protected forests and another 640,000 ha are production forests.
Forestry Ministry spokesman Masyhud defended the quota, saying it was necessary not only to help the reconstruction efforts but also to provide jobs for the Acehnese. "(Legal) logging in the province had stopped for several years. It is only logical that companies there (now) get larger quotas," he told The Jakarta Post.
Earlier, the executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Chalid Muhammad, suggested the forestry minister ask international organizations working in Aceh to import timber for the reconstruction projects. "For that, the government should give them incentives, such as scrapping import duties and taxes for the imported wood," he said.