Indonesia: Gov makes more promises to not be so corrupt and destructive again
The government will be more selective in issuing land concessions, or
HTI, for industrial timber plantations next year to break the monopoly
of large companies and encourage better use of the country’s land
resources.
“We will become more strict in issuing new HTIs, mostly for
big holding companies,” the Ministry of Forestry’s top official, MS
Kaban, said on Monday. The minister said that one way to reduce the
monopoly in the sector was to set restrictions on the maximum land
area that could be managed by one company. Two companies, PT Sinar Mas
Pulp & Paper Tbk, and PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper Tbk, together
produce about 4.5 million tons of the nation’s pulp and paper, more
than 75 percent of the total national output of 6.3 million tons. “We
want to reduce the monopoly of big companies in managing HTI for their
own industrial interests,” Kaban said. However, Kaban did not mention
how large the maximum land area was going to be and whether the
restrictions would be applied to companies that were already operating
in large concessions that produce timber. Industrial timber
plantations are forests planted by companies to produce wood for use
in the furniture and construction sectors. Kaban said the policy would
find away to encourage companies to focus on maximizing their existing
land concessions rather than opening up new areas for commercial
forestry. Hadi S Pasaribu, the ministry’s director general of forestry
production development, said that the government would also consider
companies’ capacity to process timber before issuing the concessions.
“If a company only has the capacity to process two million tons of
timber a year, we will only give them a license for 375,000 hectares
of HTI land,” Pasaribu said. These restrictions, Pasaribu said, were
to help ensure that furniture and construction companies would only
procure wood legally. Indonesia is expected to lose around 1.8 million
hectares of natural rain forest this year, according to an estimate by
global environmental watchdog
Greenpeace.http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/article/4172.html