Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – A leading non-governmental organization (NGO) has opposed a plan by the government to grant forest concessions to 11 businessmen intended to secure a supply of timber for reconstruction work in Aceh.

If the plan materializes, the 11 businessmen will be permitted to cut some 500,000 cubic meters next year in designated forest areas. The forested area in Aceh currently covers 3.265 million hectares.

If the concessions are granted, flooding in the tsunami-wrecked province will increase, says Dewa Gumai, the chief of the advocacy and campaign division of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Aceh chapter.

The government's argument that the forest concessions are badly needed to assure a supply of logs for Aceh's reconstruction is not right, said Dewa. In order to meet the demand for logs, the government could obtain logs from various sources such as illegal loggers throughout the country or the use of other materials could be encouraged, said Dewa.

Reconstruction work has taken place since the tsunami swept away houses in Aceh's coastal cities in December last year. The government, backed by international donors, has promised to build thousands of houses for tsunami victims and rebuild public facilities, thus raising the demand for wood and other building materials.

Meanwhile, strong opposition to the government plan was also voiced by deputy speaker of the Aceh Legislative Council, Raihan Iskandar. "The government already has a plan to turn Aceh into a green province, but suddenly it is going ahead with another plan to grant businessmen forest concessions," said Raihan.

Separately, chief of the Forestry Office with the Aceh provincial administration Mustafa Hasbullah confirmed the plan, saying he had already received a letter from the Minister of Forestry M.S. Ka'ban that the central government would proceed with the plan.

The plan is not new in Aceh. The central government had also granted forest concessions in Aceh for businessmen several years ago but the grants were all revoked in 2001 after prolonged armed conflict in the province.

Responding to the new plan by the government, the office has asked the minister to conduct a feasibility study before going ahead with the plan. "Since the mounting armed conflict in 1998, the government has not informed us of the forest situation. We need to map out which areas would be suited for forest concessions," said Mustafa.

Forest concessions have been granted nationwide since the Soeharto government. Under the program, the firms granted forest concessions would fell trees in designated areas normally on jungle-clad islands such as Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi and are obliged to replant the area.

The program has drawn criticism from many NGOs as it is prone to irregularities. In some cases, the firms have cut trees beyond the designated areas thus deceiving the state, and in other cases, the firms have not replanted the trees as stipulated in the contracts, thus destroying the forest.

Irregularities continue to occur unchecked as government monitoring is a difficult task in view of the sheer size of the forest.