The End for Indonesia's Lowland Forests?

Author(s): Paul Jepson, James K. Jarvie, Kathy MacKinnon and Kathryn A. Monk
Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 292, No. 5518 (May 4, 2001), pp. 859+861
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3083582
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 0 s2s-
project, financed by a World Bank loan and
ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY a grant from the Global Environment Facili-
ty (GEF), aimed to establish integrated con-

The End for Indonesia s servation management regimes for the

greater Kerinci ecosystem. This is crucially
important for the continued survival of Asian

Lowland Forests? megafauna such as the Sumatran rhinoceros,

the Sumatran tiger and the Asian elephant.
Paul Jepson, James K. Jarvie, Kathy MacKinnon,* Kathryn A. Monk In the concessions we visited, illegal log-
ging gangs were operating freely along log-
Twenty years ago, Indonesia used the cessions) over timber-rich rainforest to power- ging roads. Large areas of forest had been
best principles of conservation biology ful conglomerates and politico-business fami- newly cleared and burned to create new agri-
to plan a national protected area sys-lies. After Suharto's fall from power, the inter- cultural plots. Numerous piles of sawn tim-
tem based on representativeness, irreplace- im government of President Habibie ber indicated extensive portable saw mill op-
ability, complementarity, and connectivity. (1998-99) passed two pieces of legislation erations
on within the forest. Within conces-
Large areas of all habitats were proposed regional as autonomy that were vague aboutsions, the basic security measures were lacking,
conservation areas within each and road barriers were un-
biogeographic region. Subse- manned. A skid trail used by
quently, all of the country's the illegal gangs to drag out
'If the current state of resource anarchy
forests (more than 70% of the rough-sawn timber even
crossed one concessionaire's
total land area) were allocated continues, the lowland forests... .will be
for production, watershed pro- yard. Entrepreneurs (known
tection, or conservation, and
j totally destroyed...." as "cukong") prefmance these
Indonesia endorsed the princi- gangs; loans are repaid with
ples of sustainable forest man- timber delivered to sawmill
agement. Unfortunately, these and warehouse gates. Conces-
scientific principles were never fully recon- sionaires claimed that logging
ciled with national policy and practice, even gangs would gang up to burn
though Indonesia was one of the first signa- camps and logging trucks if a
tories to the Convention on Biological Diver- company attempted to interfere
sity. Today, Indonesia is a society in transi- with their illegal activities.
tion, torn apart by economic and political The security of logging con-
crises, and the gap between scientific best cessions is supposedly a joint
practice and the reality of current forest mis- responsibility of the concession
management could hardly be wider. If the company and the district forest
current state of resource anarchy continues, department, yet neither make
the lowland forests of the Sunda Shelf, the any attempt to stop illegal log-
richest forests on Earth, will be totally de- ging. Roads constructed by the
stroyed by 2005 on Sumatra and 2010 on forest concessionaires to pro-
Kalimantan.t Where did things go wrong? vide access to new and undis-
Suharto's New Order Government The World Bank's new report on the state of the environ- turbed forests are appropriated
(1966-1998) allocated use rights (forest con- ment in Indonesia illustrates stark choices for society be- by illegal logging networks. Key
tween futures with and without forests. officials ("oknum") in local
P. Jepson is with the School of Geography and the Envi- government act in collusion
ronment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 ITB, UK. extent
J. K. of regional autonomy for resource plan-with illegal loggers by turning a blind eye
Jarvie is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. K. MacKinnonning
is in and management.1 The responsibility forand/or providing permits for timber transport.
the Environment Department, World Bank, Washington
the management of all forests other than con- Some government officials want to stop illegal
D.C. 20433, U.S.A. K. A. Monk is with Leuser Manage-
ment Unit, Jl. D. Mansyur 68, Medan 20154, Indonesia. servation areas (national parks and reserves) logging practices; they face serious intimida-
was devolved to the district level within tion and even arson and murder.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E- provinces, although criteria and standards were In Gunung Leuser National Park, lead-
mail: kmackinnon@worldbank.org
sfl to be set by the central government. Thisers of logging gangs ("tauke") have nego-
The authors have each lived and worked in Indonesia neglected the fact that most districts have notiated agreements with leaders of commu-
for a decade or more. Paul Jepson combines research capacity for detailed spatial and developmentnities for title over forest lands that overlap
on Indonesian protected area policy and work as an planning for sustainable development, nor official park boundaries.? Several of these
independent consultant. He is finalizing a Ph.D. at Ox-
mechanisms to coordinate forest and water- gangs are backed by army and rebel
ford on conservation policy. James K. Jarvie has under-
taken considerable work on plant taxonomy and shed management with neighbonng districts. groups working in collusion with foreign-
botanical surveys throughout Indonesia. He special- In December 2000, we visited protected backed interests. Malinau communities of
izes in conservation planning, sustainable forest man- areas and forest concessions in Sumatra and East Kalimantan have signed away rights
*agement, and forest certification. Kathy MacKinnon
Kalimantan. We found a rapidly deteriorat- for up to 15,000 ha of land, some of which
has been associated with conservation projects in In-
yd
donesia since 1971. In 1994, she became senior biodi- ing situation compared to just 6 months pre- is already licensed by the central govern-
versity specialist in the Environment Department of viously. The one-million-hectare Kerinci-Se- ment to timber concession companies. The
z
the World Bank. Kathryn A. Monk has more than 15 blat National Park in Sumatra is surrounded cukong protect themselves with quasi-le-
years' experience of initiating, designing, and manag-
by logging concessions that cover biodiversi- gal documents that make villages liable for
c ing conservation and research projects in Africa, the
IxL

Middle East, and Indonesia. She is now director-gener- ty-rich lowland habitats excised from pro- payments of up to US$230,000 should
al of the Iwokrama Rainforest Project in Guyana. posed park boundaries after 1982. A major they renege on the deal.

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 292 4 MAY 2001 859

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 SCIENCE'S COMPASS

Communities have two reasons to sur- that led to deaths, destroyed roads and rice A concerted media campaign to pro-
render their quasi-legal rights. First, imme- crops, and caused local food shortages. mote public debate and mobilize civil soci-
diate cash benefits far exceed anything ac- An export ban on Indonesian timber will ety must be an integral part of any action
quired during past political eras. Second, gain little national or local support and is to control illegal logging. Public, political,
they fear retribution from illegal logging probably unenforceable. Foreign pressure for and donor attitudes must change to favor
networks. Participation in illegal logging is such a ban carries the risk of a nationalist the following: prosecuting all those in-
more lucrative in the short term than any backlash that would exacerbate the situation volved in illegal logging, including top of-
benefits offered by concessionaires, con- further. It would kill the few Indonesian and ficials; state-enforced protection of ecosys-
servation initiatives, or sustainable forestry international initiatives that have the poten- tems that are critically important for con-
projects supported by donor agencies. tial to foster sustainable forest management. servation of national and global biodiversi-
Although contradicting state norms, ille- In the short term, enforcement of national ty; independent third-party monitoring of
gal logging is becoming semi-legal and law is critical. A recent report by the Indone- forestry practice and public exposure of
rapidly established as the de facto institution- wrongdoing; increasing awareness of the
al arrangement governing Indonesia's forests. watershed and environmental values of
The state is unable, or unwilling, to address forests; and capturing the long-term bene-
this illegal activity. In August 2000, after in- fits that can accrue if forests are managed
temational publicity about illegal logging in under an "ethical consumerism" umbrella.
Tanjung Puting National Park,"1 the Minister For the long term, the most promising
7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
of Forestry wrote to the relevant provincial approach for sustainable forest management
authorities asking for ac- is to foster initiatives that encourage joint
tion against the main of- management between concessionaires, com-
fender, a well-known munities, and district government. Already,
member of Indonesia's a growing minority of logging concessions
People's Assembly. The are embracing intemational and lo-
request was ignored. In cal timber "green" certification
three case-study areas, mechanisms as an altemative forest
Kerinci-Seblat and Gu- govemance mechanism that can se-
nung Leuser national cure local buy-in and better practice.
parks (Sumatra) and Ma- A change from large-scale, compa-
linau district (Kaliman- ny-based exploitation to lower-im-
tan), illegal operations appear to lead to one pact joint ventures will require a
or two known principal backers, residing in complete rethinking of forest prof-
regional centers. itability and beneficiaries.
District bureaucracies are generally un- The illegal logging in Indonesia
aware and uncaring of biodiversity issues | m--~~~~~~~~~~~~0-0- has global relevance but no simple
and have limited capacity to govern. Local solution. The scientific community,
Illegal logging operations. (Top) A newly built logging
governing elites rarely consider the environ- the conservation movement, indus-
road crosses the boundary into Kerinci national park.
mental costs of rampant forest exploitation try, and the Indonesian and donor
(Middle) Illegal timber being hauled out of Kerinci na-
or believe that environmental damage can tional park. (Bottom) Log piles build up in the log yards
governments must move from appar-
be rectified with technical solutions, fi- of the Duta Madju concession, known to have illegally ent complacency to vigorous action
nanced by increased district prosperity or transgressed the Kerinci N.P. boundary and extracted at local levels. This is a time to unite
grants from the central government and in- timber from the park. Now concessionaires are working to combat this unprecedented forest
ternational donors. In essence, they are furiously to remove timber from their concessions be- loss, with its predictably dire conse-
replicating the resource management modelfore the illegal gangs get to it first. quences for local communities,
of the Suharto regime at the local level. livelihoods, and biodiversity. In the
Indonesia's government and the interna-sian Directorate of Nature Conservation con- face of this global emergency, we must move
tional community face some hard choices ifcluded that local police capacity was insuffi- from empty rhetoric and debate on biodiver-
cient to address the scale and power of illegal
they wish to stem this biological catastrophe. sity and climate change to positive action to
To wait until the political climate settles logging networks and that military action protect Indonesia's forests.
may be necessary to protect national parks.
would be disastrous for biodiversity and forest
tD. Holmes, Deforestation In Indonesia: A Review of
management. Given current trends, we esti-Emergency action must be taken to enforce
the Situation in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi
mate that Kerinci's lowland forests, some ofclosure of illegal sawmills and stop illegal (World Bank, Jakarta, 2000).
logging operations. Where concessionaires
the richest habitats on Earth, will be destroyed *Down to Earth, Newsletter No. 46, Special Issue on
within 3 years. Illegal logging will vastly in-have lost control over their own concession Regional Autonomy, available from www.gn.apc.org/
dte [accessed 9 September 2000].
crease the risk and impacts of fire during the areas, all operations should be suspended, es-
?J. F. McCarthy, "Wild logging": The rise and fall of
next El Nifio event. A combination of forestpecially the building of new logging roads logging networks and biodiversity conservation pro-
degradation and land clearance were the rootthat open up new areas of the forest frontier jects on Sumatra's rainforest frontier [Occasional Pa-
causes of the 1998-99 fire disaster that blan-to exploitation. Priority actions should target per No. 31, Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR), Bogor Barat, Indonesia], available at
keted nearly 20 million people across South-the ecosystems of Leuser and Kerinci (Suma-
www.cifor.cgiar.org.
5 east Asia in smoke for months, with disas- tra) and Tanjung Puting and Gunung Palung
IIEIA/Telapak, The Final Cut. Illegal Logging in Indone-
cL
0 trous costs to local health and economies.T Al-(Kalimantan), where vast losses of irreplace- sia's Orang Utan Parks and Illegal Logging in Tanjung
0

lowing the indiscriminate logging to continue able and globally important biodiversity are Puting National Park-An Update on The Final Cut
CL

Report (Environmental Investigation Agency, London,

-

will result in long-term damage to watershed imminent. Such action would send a clear
and Telapak Indonesia, Bogor, 1999 and 2000).
forests. In October 2000, districts around Ker-message to districts that decentralized gov-
11C. V. Barber, J. Schweithelm, Trial by Fire (World Re-
inci National Park suffered major flooding ernment also means responsible government. sources Institute, Washington, DC, 2000).

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 292 4 MAY 2001 861

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