Jakarta – Legitimate forestry companies are contributing to illegal logging and other deforestation in Indonesia, according to a new report into the widespread exploitation of the country'svaluable timber resources.

The study by Indonesia Corruption Watch and non-government group Greenomics Indonesia said poor practices by forestry firms have led to squatting and illegal logging in authorized concessions and sometimes to excessive logging by the firmsthemselves.

"This can be called proof of a trend by a majority of timber estate firms who have obtained forest access, to apparently not show a serious commitment to protecting the forest," it said.

The 18-page report also pointed to a lack of commitment by authorized loggers to the future of the forests they were working in, with 53 percent of natural forest concession holders performing poorly based on wood harvests.

"So it can be concluded that most companies holdingconcessions to natural forests have yet to show a commitment to long-term use of their forests," the report said.

Only five companies effectively implemented procedures for evaluating the environmental effects of their logging, it said.

"At the same time 39 other companies (about 89 percent) can be said to be not yet serious in guarding against destruction as a result of logging in their management unit," the report said.

Corruption Watch and Greenomics found that only about 12 percent of concession holders in specially-planted timber estates were performing well while almost 60 percent showed poor performance.

"Based on the analysis, the principal problem in developing forest estates in Indonesia is the extremely poor commitment of timber estate firms to manage their acreage in an optimal and long-lasting way," they said.

The report studied 68 holders of timber estate concessions and another 44 with concessions in natural forest, covering a total of 6.39 million hectares (15.8 million acres) in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Papua regions.

It quoted forestry department data as saying that as of April this year there were 333 concession holders across the country, with rights to a total of more than 31 million hectares.

A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch, and Forest Watch Indonesia Reports said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares of forest annually – an area half the size of Switzerland.

Forest cover fell from 162 million hectares in 1950 to 98 million hectares in 2000, they said.