Jakarta – Deforestation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, sped by post-tsunami reconstruction activities, caused the huge flooding and landslides on Sumatra Island that have so far claimed more than 100 lives there, activists said Tuesday.
"More than 60 percent of Aceh's forests have been destroyed, which in turn has caused floods," spokeswoman Vanda Mutia Dewi of Greenomics, a non-governmental organization focusing on mining and forestry, told The Jakarta Post.
"The deforestation has been sped up by Aceh's reconstruction and rehabilitation work," she said. Dewa Gumay from the Aceh office of Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) agreed that the disaster on Sumatra was man-made, saying the forests were destroyed to provide timber for housing construction.
Floods have hit the Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, East Aceh, Bireuen, Aceh Tamiang, Bener Meriah and Gayo Lues regencies as well as parts of neighboring North Sumatra.
Aceh province has 3.3 million hectares of forests, including 2.1 million hectares located in protected and conservation zones. But they have been cut down or changed into farms and plantations, Vanda said.
"Our team found timber and logs were freely transported across the province with no legal documents or clear sources from which they were taken," she said.
Both Walhi and Greenomics said the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) shared responsibility for the disaster.
"The timber procurement by BRR is questionable as the sources are not clear. The agency doesn't care where the timber comes from because they're only concentrating on Aceh's reconstruction, which leads to rampant illegal logging," said Vanda.
A survey by Greenomics found that the seven regencies being hit by floods have contributed 36 percent of the timber for the reconstruction work in Aceh.
According to Walhi, 120,210 cubic meters of timber from illegal logging was seized during 2006, four times as much as last year.
Based on Forestry Ministry data, Aceh has more than 638,000 hectares designated as production forests. No less than 390,000 hectares of them, 300,000 hectares of which are located in protected and conservation zones, have been destroyed by forest concession holders, according to Vanda.
The government granted concessions to five timber companies to provide timber for the BRR early this year.
The agency projected that Aceh's reconstruction would require about 1 million cubic meters of wood, in order to build 120,000 houses from 2005 through 2009.
Dewa said the destruction of river basin areas across Aceh, connected with the damage to forests, also contributed to the floods. "Nearly half of the river basin areas, totaling 1.5 million hectares, have been damaged," said Dewa.
He also blamed the government. "The government's decision to again allow legal logging and widen concession areas for palm oil plantations was a blunder," he said.