President Megawati Sukarnoputri has urged police to cease their involvement in illegal logging and timber smuggling.
"Do not repeat the mistakes of police involved in illegal practices," she was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara during a visit to the Indonesian Police Academy in Semarang, Central Java, on Saturday.
Megawati, a keen gardener and former biology student, was at the academy to launch a regreening project.
"It is ironic that police are involved in smuggling amid the government's serious efforts to combat such illegal practices," said the president, who was accompanied by her husband Taufik Kiemas and National Police chief General Dai Bachtiar.
Also present were Trade and Industry Minister Rini Soewandi, Forestry Minister Mohammad Prakosa, State Enterprises Minister Laksamana Sukardi and the president's military secretary Major General Tubagus Hasanudin.
Megawati said she had first become aware of the need for regreening the Police Academy compound when she was vice president. The academy is located on 125 hectares land.
"I frequently plant trees, but the problem is who will take care of them so that the activity will not become only a ceremonial thing," she said. After ceremonially planting a tree, she said: "I want to know who will maintain this tree two hours later."
Police Academy chief Inspector General Ismerda Lebang said the institute has been planting trees since 1985 to create a water catchment area and an agrotourism destination.
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.
Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim last year asked Greenpeace to help the government combat illegal logging, but 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 during the rampant plunder of forests that took place 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.