Jayapura – The future of nature conservation water catchment areas in the Papuan cities of Jayapura and Sentani is under threat from rampant illegal logging.

4,330 people have illegally settled in the conservation areas – known as Cycloop – thanks to lax government control.

"These people have illegally felled trees and developed farming," Jayapura Regent Habel Melkias Suwae said. He said human settlement of the area was limiting its effectiveness as a water catchment.

Habel explained out of the 22,500 hectares earmarked for nature conservation in the area, 9,374 hectares have been classified as 'critical land'.

Illegal logging in the conservation areas has caused landslides in three locations and caused flooding in parts of Sentani, Habel said.

He said the government's ban on people living in the conservation areas was not being heeded. "They claim the land belongs to them so that they feel they can do as they like. But when their activities cause flooding, it is the local administration which is to blame," he said.

Relocating conservation area residents was not an easy job, Habel said, as residents had to be provided with new land in resettlement areas.