"This is a smuggler... ha... ha... He is a mafia [member]... ha... ha...," an unidentified man told undercover investigators.
He pointed his finger at a Singaporean in a yellow checked shirt, who was counting stash of cash on his desk. The Singaporean smiled and said, "The problem is that somebody asks me to smuggle. The problem is the buyer. No buyer, no smuggling."
"This smuggling is better than drug smuggling. Drug smuggling is no good. This one is OK," he said in a heavy Sing-lish (Singaporean English) accent.
That was a dialog captured on video and presented by the London-based Environmental Investigative Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner, Telapak, when unveiling their investigation into the world's biggest smuggling operation of merbau (intsia) from Papua province to China.
The timber smuggling involves around 300,000 cubic meters of timber a month and generates around US$1 billion in revenue. The two NGOs claimed that the racket was the world's biggest smuggling operation in terms of one species of timber being smuggled from one place to another.
"The huge illegal trade of merbau logs between Indonesia and China is the world's biggest environment-related crime and it endangers Papua forests," said John Newman, an EIA investigator.
Arbi Valentinus of the Bogor-based Telapak told The Jakarta Post that the three-year investigation started in 2002, based on reports received from Papuans and local media.
"There were news reports on rampant illegal logging in Papua that they had never seen before," Arbi said after releasing the report: The Last Frontier at a media conference on Thursday in Jakarta.
His colleague, M. Yayat Afianto, said the investigation had been perfectly prepared before they traveled from the eastern tip of Indonesia to the industrial town of Nanxun in China.
"We studied the history of forest management in the area and contacted people in Papua to assist us in accessing the logging areas and talked to the tribal communities," he said.
At the same time, EIA was trying to uncover the chain of syndicates that stretched across Asia and involved high profile businessmen, high-ranking military personnel and customs officials. Each played an important role from preparing shipping documents to finding buyers.
The two NGOs spent around Rp 200 million (around $21,750) for sending two-person teams periodically to document the individuals involved in the racket. In conducting the investigation, the team had to pose as timber businessmen or bird-watchers.
Several members of the teams received threats from unidentified persons, who felt threatened by their investigations. "With regard to the bureaucrats, we didn't have many problems. They were cooperative. But some of our friends received phone threats saying that they would harm their families," said Yahya. But, the threats did not deter them from going ahead with the investigation.
However, the deforestation of more than three million hectares a year was more fearful to them than the threats. Moreover, the investigators felt that the Papuans had suffered losses from the rampant theft, he said.
"An elderly villager in Papua once told us how timber companies extracted 5,000 cubic meters of merbau from a site but only paid the locals Rp 7 million," the report said.
Merbau is one of the most valuable species of wood in Southeast Asia and is often used as flooring. It is worth about US$270 per cubic meter.