Indonesia to Enact Special Law against Forestry Crimes

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - Public complaints about the slow pace of law enforcers’ efforts to eradicate illegal logging and other forest-related crimes have prompted the government to call for the enactment of a special law to deal with the problem. The government has finally realized that drastic action is needed to save the country’s forests.

The proposal to have a law to combat forestry crimes was made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a a consultative meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday. The President said on the occasion, if illegal logging was allowed to continue, it would cause bigger problems for the country in the long run. "If those who damage the environment are not dealt with, the state will continue to suffer losses," he said.

"The central and regional governments will suffer losses because eventually an important source of revenue will cease to exist," he said.

The President made the proposal for a special law to fight forest-related crimes when discussions at the consultative meeting with the House turned to the national legislation program. President Yudhoyono said the government in principle agreed with measures to speed up and improve effectiveness in the deliberations on and enactment of a law.

"I appreciate the DPR that has allocated more time to settle a bill. The government has also done the same with regard to finishing our homework," the president said.

President Yudhoyono emphasized the importance of creating laws which are just and important so that the people would not suffer a loss. In response to the proposed enactment of a law to deal with forestry crimes, Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) chairman Yunus Husein earlier said suspicious transactions linked to the forestry sector soared in 2006 and 2007 after the government began a campaign against illegal logging.

The country’s anti-logging campaign under the proposed law to deal with forestry crimes should focus on the finances of illegal loggers and investigate suspicious financial transactions in the forestry sector. As a matter of fact, according to him, Indonesia’s failure in fighting illegal logging was inseparable from weaknesses in the 1999 Law on Forestry, which only focuses on investigation of illicit timber sources and not of the people who order and benefit from forestry crimes.

"Follow the money" should be the new paradigm in investigating forestry-linked crimes," Yunus said.

Law enforcement faced difficulties in targeting the main actors behind illegal logging because of the weak law, said Hamzah Tadja, a representative of the Attorney General?s Office (AGO).

"It requires law enforcement to find material evidence of illegal logging," said Hamzah, who is the Junior Attorney General for General Crimes.

Law enforcement focuses too much on seeking physical evidence of illegally-felled trees, which means they can only catch field operators who lack licenses to cut or to transport trees, he added. Hamzah said implementation of the law on forestry must be complemented by the use of the anti-money laundering law to allow law enforcement agencies to trace the proceeds of forest crimes.

The laws on corruption eradication and money laundering should be applied, so the police can arrest the main actors behind illegal logging. The involvement of `"forestry mafias" in illegal logging took place before the Judicial Mafia Task-force started investigating forestry crimes, task-force member Mas Achmad Santosa said.

He also proposed an integrated law enforcement approach (ILEA) which aimed to promote coordinated legal enforcement among major actors in the forestry sector to curb forestry crimes, corruption, and money laundering. CIFOR research explored banking policies against laundering money from the proceeds of illegal logging and related crimes.

Bank Indonesia’s 2009 regulation on money laundering and terrorism financing requires that banks implement due diligence measures on customer transactions. However, the crack-down on forestry crimes was launched after President Susulo Bambang Yudhoyono repeatedly expressed concern about illegal logging cases. The president also called for cooperation with non-governmental organizations to help find ways to counter the predatory practice, saying that there was a mafia ring behind illegal logging.

The government`s joint team of investigators from the police force, prosecutor`s office and the ministry of forestry focused its first phase investigations on alleged forest mafia cases in North Sumatra and Central Kalimantan provinces. "We have set 2010 as the year of law enforcement in the forestry field. In the first phase, investigations will focus on alleged forest crimes in North Sumatra and Central Kalimantan," Aulia Ibrahim, forest investigation and protection director of the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Preservation (PHKA), said .

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said his ministry was investigating the case of two million hectares of forest whose function had been converted to an oil palm plantation and a mining business site. For the enforcement of the law, the forestry ministry will set up a special forestry task force which would reinforce the joint team of investigators from the forestry ministry, police, prosecutor`s office and the Corruption Eradication Commission.

The minister also asked the Greenpeace representatives to help monitor local governments in issuing licenses for the opening of a plantation and mining site. "On the issuance of a license for land use, our position is at the end of the administrative process. Therefore, I cannot reject it if the local government has already provided a recommendation and the project is already equipped with an environment impact analysis and approved by the House," the minister said but admitted that he had not signed any request for a land conversion in the last seven months.

In the meantime, Director General for Forest Protection and Nature Conservation Darori said the special forestry task force would do its best to maximize its findings about firms opening illegal oil palm plantation and mining site in the forest areas. He admitted that enforcement of the law had been running at the snail`s pace but in the last four months the ministry of forestry had been maximizing its efforts to net forest squatters and to impose corruption crime charges on cases that caused losses to the state.

"In Central Kalimantan, for example, about one million hectares of forest have had their function converted. If one hectare has the potential of 100 cubic meters of wood, the potential loss the state would have suffered is about Rp16 trillion. It is a corruption crime and there must be the party that has to be held responsible and pay the losses," Darori said.

The forestry minister has sent circulars to all governors in the country to file a report on deforestation in their respective areas. The director general for forest protection and nature conservation will ask all governors and district heads to hold exposes and deliver presentations on the forest conditions before the minister of forestry, KPK and the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.

Source : kompas

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