Jakarta – Greenomics Indonesia, an NGO conducting studies on the environment, says 60.42 percent of forestry companies in Papua and West Papua perform poorly on local community empowerment and investment in sustainable forest development.

Greenomics coordinator Vanda Mutia Dewi said an evaluation of forest concession holders in the two provinces also shows very poor financial performance.

Performance indicators were based on a sample of 12 forestry companies managing 1.92 million hectares of forests in the two provinces, representing 26 percent of forest areas. The evaluation cited was conducted by a Forestry Ministry team between 2005 and 2007.

Vanda said that 60 percent of forestry companies did poorly in empowering adjacent communities to improve their social welfare.

According to the team, 75 percent of forestry companies harvested their forests in contravention of the legal requirements on selective cutting laid down by the 1999 forestry law and government regulations.

Forestry companies performed poorly in practicing selective cutting based on wood volume, forest size and forest types. "Rapid action is needed, or the two provinces will be deforested and abandoned, while local people living in and near these areas will remain poor," she said.

Asked what should be done to improve forestry companies performance to benefit stakeholders, including on the environment, Vanda said the government should conduct a comprehensive evaluation as required by ministerial decree on the criteria and indicators for sustainable management of production forests.

"Central and provincial governments and an independent evaluation team should conduct a field visit and comprehensive evaluation. They should take action against poorly performing forestry companies and revoke their concessions," she said.

Only 9 percent of forestry companies fulfilled all the criteria and indicators required by the ministerial decree, while the poorer performance of most companies reflected mismanagement.