Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – To curb the destruction of the remaining natural forests in Papua, a coalition of environmental groups has reiterated its call for the government to halt all logging activities in the resource-rich province.
"Unless such an initiative is taken, Papua and the rest of Indonesia are facing serious threats of ecological losses, which will lead to forest fires, massive floods, loss of biodiversity and accelerated climate change," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Emmy Hafild.
The call was made Wednesday after Forest Watch Indonesia and Greenpeace completed their latest forest mapping of New Guinea island, the world's second largest island after Greenland. The mapping found much of the island's large intact forests had vanished due to logging activities.
New Guinea island consists of the two Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya, and the neighboring country Papua New Guinea, a former colony of Germany and the United Kingdom.
The mapping also showed the region's remaining pristine forests were facing threats of further destruction, as more than 25 percent of the more than 60 million hectares of forest on the island had been given away as concessions to scores of logging companies.
In the two Indonesian provinces on the island, the two groups found that 17.9 million hectares of a total 39.7 million hectares of forest were categorized as intact forests, housing abundant trees hundreds of years old and largely untouched by humans. However, these remaining forests could certainly be lost in the coming decades, as much of the area is crisscrossed by the 11.6 million hectares of logging concessions handed over by the Indonesian government to 62 timber companies.
"Of the over 11 million hectares given to logging companies, four million are in Papua's remaining intact forests," said Christian Poerba of Forest Watch Indonesia.
He said that in the next two to three decades, the remaining intact forests would be further degraded as logging concession periods spanned between 25 and 30 years.
Furthermore, there is no strict monitoring in place to ensure logging companies do not cut trees in areas outside their concessions, he said.
"A handful of companies have wiped out much of Indonesia's forests. They must be stopped from finishing off our last intact forests in Papua," said Emmy Hafild of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, a former chairwoman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment.
She urged the government to save these forests by declaring a moratorium on logging operations while reviewing national and local forestry policies.
Environmentalists have dubbed New Guinea island "Paradise Forest", because it has tens of thousands of plant species and hundreds of mammals, of which only half have been identified.
Earlier this year, a group of researchers from Conservation International discovered a host of new plant and animal species near Foja mountain in Papua. The researchers described the area as "the closest place to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth".
However, Forestry Ministry spokesman Masyhud dismissed the call for a logging moratorium, saying the government had taken into account the conservation of Papua's pristine forests by allocating only production forests to be exploited by logging companies.
"We have protected Papua's intact forests by declaring them national parks and conservation sites, banning any exploitation. We will ensure that logging firms operate outside of these areas," he told The Jakarta Post.