Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) recently analysed the official data and available maps for West Papua. Their results show that Papua's forests are disappearing much faster than had been thought (see box).
The main cause is large-scale commercial logging. As lowland forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan are progressively logged out, timber companies have shifted their attention to eastern Indonesia and Papua. The most extensive remaining forests are in Papua. The Indonesian government has zoned some 22 million hectares of Papuan forest as 'production forest'. Of the over 11 million hectares given to 65 logging companies, four million are in Papua's remaining intact forests - areas that conservationists are calling 'Paradise forests' (see box).
"Unless large-scale logging concessions are stopped, Papua's forests are doomed", said Christian Poerba, FWI's director. There is little monitoring of logging operations, particularly in remote locations, and companies often log illegally outside their concessions. So much larger areas are logged than permitted under their licences. Logging trails made by concessionaires also provide access for other illegal logging operations.
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| Population of West Papua | 2,380,9801 |
| Population growth rate/year | 3.22% |
| Area of West Papua | 40.8 million ha 2 |
| Area under Forestry Dept control | 39.7 million ha 3 |
| Marine protected areas (included in above) | 1.9 million ha |
| Area of state forest | 36.8 million ha |
| Area of Protected Forest | 8.1 million ha 4 |
| Area of Protection Forest | 9.1 million ha 5 |
| Area of Production Forest (total) | 22.4 million ha 6 |
| - zoned for conversion | 9.3 million ha |
| - zoned as Limited Production Forest | 3.7 million ha |
| - zoned for production | 9.9 million ha |
| Area granted as logging concessions | 11.6 million ha (65 companies) 7 |
| Area of concession areas consisting ofbadly damaged secondary forest (2000) | 1.7 million ha 8 |
| Official forest cover | 32.3 million ha9 |
| Intact forest | 17.9 million ha (45% of Papua's forests)10 |
| Forest which is not allocated to concessions | 13.8 million ha (30% of Papua's forests)11 |
| Legal log production Papua province (2004) | 373,869m3 12 |
| Legal log production West Irian Jaya | (2004) 356,437m3 |
| Merbau logs leaving Papua per month (2004) | over 300,000m3 13
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| Notes: 1 Sensus Pertanian BPS 2003 2 Forest Planning Agency (Baplan) 2005 Report, calculated from satellite imagery analysis from 2002/2003 data 3 Baplan forest zoning 1999-2004 4 ibid 5 ibid 6 Baplan 2004, www.dephut.go.id/INFORMASI/INFPROP/Inf-Irja.PDF 7 Baplan 2005 report 8 Baplan 2004, op cit 9 Baplan 2005, op cit 10 FWI 11 FWI 12 Department of forestry, Bina Produksi, most recent available figures 13 The Last Frontier, EIA/Telapak, Feb 2005 | |
Greenpeace's flagship, Rainbow Warrior, arrived in Jayapura in March as part of its campaign to save the 'Paradise forests' of the Asia-Pacific from illegal and destructive logging. It then sailed along the Papuan coast and docked in Jakarta in April, where activists met forestry minister Kaban and environment minister Witoelar. Their message was that forest degradation and destruction threaten the livelihoods of West Papua's 2 million population and its wealth of flora and fauna (see box).
"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. The Indonesian government must put in place a moratorium on large-scale commercial logging activities in the intact forest landscapes of Indonesia, starting with Papua, until national and local forestry policies have been reviewed, proper landscape planning has been conducted and a significant increase in protected areas have been established," said Emmy Hafild, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
If the Indonesian government is serious about controlling illegal logging, it should carefully monitor the activities of the six large wood-processing plants in West Papua which handle all the timber felled by the logging companies. When the Rainbow Warrior visited Sorong, activists watched plywood from the Henrison Iriana mill, a subsidiary of Kayu Lapis Indonesia (KLI) - one of Indonesia's largest logging companies, being loaded onto two ships. The shipments of 9,000 cubic metres of timber - equivalent to more than 2,500 trees - were destined for Korea, Japan and the US.
Greenpeace has handed this information and other data that shows companies with large-scale concessions to have broken forestry regulations and destroyed forests to the Forestry Department and Environment Ministry and is pressing them to take action. It also presented KLI with its 'Golden Chainsaw Award' and plans to target international buyers in a campaign to stop them buying KLI wood, which is exported mostly to the US, Japan, Canada and Netherlands.
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Papua's rich biodiversity
The island of New Guinea - of which West Papua is the western part - has one of the largest areas of intact forest remaining on earth. These forests have huge biodiversity and a high proportion of the plants and animals found there are unique to the island. Researchers from Indonesia, America and Australia discovered dozens of completely new species of plants and animals in the Foja Mountains early this year, including four butterflies, five palms, twenty frogs, two lizards and a bird - the orange-faced honeyeater. They also found a type of tree kangaroo previously only known from one mountain in PNG and took the first photos of a six-wired bird of paradise and the golden-fronted bowerbird. Co-leader of the expedition, Conservation International's Bruce Beehler described it as "as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth". The Papuan conservation office now wants the 1.7 million ha Foja-Mamberamo area of forest to become a National Park. CI has had a conservation management programme in the Mamberamo basin for a couple of years. The customary guardians of this forest, the Kwerba and Papasena people, are (according to CI) keen to work with the conservation agencies. (Source: Conservation International press release 7/Feb/06; CenPos 8/Feb/06)
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Political incentives for change
Greenpeace is one of many CSOs calling for small-scale community logging as an alternative to large-scale concessions in West Papua. They point to PNG and the Solomon Islands as models of forest policy which respect indigenous rights while meeting local communities' needs. An Ecoforestry Forum, in which WWF-Sahel plays a leading role, has held meetings and field visits to PNG over several years to explore the possibilities for Papua. Forestry officials from Jakarta and Papua have been working together on a new policy for Papua's forests incorporating these inputs since September 2005. The political need for this is obvious for several reasons. Papuans are increasingly aware that while their rich natural resources - minerals and fisheries, as well as forests - make the biggest contribution to state revenues, they remain in poverty. In 1999, for example, production by industrial timber concessions in the Province reached 4.98 million m3, according to Forestry Department statistics. This would have generated approximately US$250 million in forest revenues (PSDH), plus an additional US$65 million in money for the national Reforestation Fund (DR). The reality is that extensive tracts of Papua's forests still have a high potential for timber extraction. Yet if a map of community land use is overlaid with the zoning for large-scale forest exploitation, the potential for further conflict in West Papua is immediately apparent.
The issue of who has the authority to determine forestry use has been a bone of contention since Indonesia introduced regional autonomy in 2001 - the more so in West Papua where Jakarta dragged its heels in implementing Special Autonomy.
In particular, there was no legal clarity over local concessions for co-operatives in the transition to decentralisation. According to Jakarta's interpretation of the national Forestry Act (No 41/1999), the only legal basis for communities to access timber was the 20 m3 per family allowed by regulation PP34/2002. Meanwhile, the Papuan authorities issued community logging permits (IPKMA) to cooperatives (Kopermas) which they considered legal, with the intention of increasing economic opportunities for indigenous Papuans - in line with Special Autonomy.
Matters came to a head when central government launched Operation Hutan Lestari II to curb 'illegal logging'. All community logging licences were withdrawn, leaving communities with no legal alternative to generate income from their forests. Marthen Kayoi, a senior Papuan forestry official, was charged with violating forestry law and detained for three weeks (see DTE 65). In February 2006, the court dismissed the cases against him - Jakarta and Jayapura have now agreed that issuing IPKMA was outside the definition of 'illegal logging'.
Papua's governor and other elected representatives are keen to improve people's livelihoods and timber is the most obvious marketable product to generate higher incomes. However, selling Papua's resources quickly and cheaply to outsiders is a political bombshell: forests are a resource that must be protected for future generations. Meanwhile, Jakarta must face up to the fact that, under Special Autonomy, there is no 'state forest' in Papua as it all comes under the definition of community land. On the other hand, it does not want to set the precedent of granting logging rights to indigenous communities. Both sides recognise the need to avoid the problems of IPKMA permits, and to improve the Kopermas system (see box).
Customary rights (adat) are a central element, partly because they can operate at a very small-scale: most clans (the smallest adat unit) control around 100 hectares. Another reason is that special autonomy legislation recognises adat. So one of the challenges now becomes how logging of adat forests can be supported legally. The most likely vehicle is a Perdasus - provincial legislation under the Special Autonomy law (No21/2001).
The draft Papuan forestry regulation gives Papuan communities the rights to manage small-scale logging businesses, similar to those in PNG. It will also bring Papua into line with the likely requirements for Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) which European Union member states will soon be negotiating with Indonesia as a means of stamping out the trade in illegal timber. It is, in many respects, a unique and ambitious policy instrument.
Firstly, a Perdasus has significant status. Unlike the usual local regulations (Perda), they can be issued without an Operating Regulation (PP) being issued at national level under Indonesian law. The only other Perdasus issued to date has been the one to establish the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), now the highest authority in Papua. The only other Perdasus issued to date has been the one to establish the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), now the highest authority in Papua.
Secondly, this regulation has far-reaching powers, providing the basis for the renegotiation of land allocation between communities and large-scale investors. It mandates the mapping of customary land; the recognition of customary institutions; and the involvement of Papuan people in all aspects of forest management, from planning to harvesting. Other progressive elements include the requirement for transparency in decision-making about licences; mechanisms for consultations with communities before land is allocated; an Ombudsman to investigate complaints; other mediation procedures; and third party audits.
Thirdly, central government and logging companies with an interest in long-term sustainable forest management have, so far, welcomed the proposal. Only 23 HPH are still operational in West Papua. The rest are stagnant or bankrupt. This partly reflects escalating conflict with local communities in the absence of adequate land administration. Others have lost out to hit-and-run operators. So a key argument behind the Perdasus is that it works to provide legal certainty for all involved - security of livelihoods for communities, security of investment (and incentive for SFM) for concessions, as well as security of revenues for government. It remains to be seen whether the forestry minister is prepared to do away with the production forest zoning which the new policy implies.
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IPKMA: small but not beautiful
The more than 300 community logging co-operatives (Kopermas) set up in West Papua since the late 1990s have been widely blamed for increasing forest destruction. However, some of the problems derive from the very nature of the local (IPKMA) logging permits. IPKMA cover an area of 1,000 hectares, but this is far too large for a traditional Papuan community to manage. So many joined up with logging companies owned by local entrepreneurs. A second problem is that all IPKMA were originally issued for forest zoned for conversion. So, from the start, they were seen as a tool for forest clearance rather than sustainable forest management. Also, these one-year licences were issued to any community group or adat leader who signed the contract. The only condition was that the business institution or 'co-operative' registered with the local co-operatives office by completing a form. The nature of the co-operative, including its capacity to manage forests, was not a criterion for receiving an IPKMA from the local forestry office. The following year, the co-operative could get another IPKMA - regardless of whether it had logged legally or illegally - and there was nothing to stop a co-operative holding several licences at once. Some co-operatives were completely fictitious and others became a means for powerful elites to get access to valuable timber under the guise of 'Papuan communities'. Many illegal operations were backed or run by the police and military. The community cut timber - willingly or unwillingly - and sold this to the military who then declared it legal. The amount received by local communities was usually a tiny fraction of the timber's value on the international market.
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Strengthening local institutions
The proposed regulation will be meaningless unless politicians in Jakarta stop using West Papua's resources as their personal bargaining chips. Even as forestry officials were striving to reach agreement over the final form of the new policy, a massive deal to sell Papuan timber to China was announced (see FDI section, above).
The Papuan forestry service will also need to be strengthened if it is to implement the new Perdasus successfully. This includes substantial capacity building and service provision to communities in mapping and managing their forest resources. Illegal military control over forest resources is another barrier to sustainable forest management which must be eliminated.
Last, but not least, the Papuan people need a good understanding of their legal rights. International governments and organisations that want to protect Papuan forests should therefore look to developing strong civil society organisations, not stop at marvelling at new species in the 'lost world' of West Papua.
(Sources: Reuter 1/Mar/06; Greenpeace press release 15/Mar/2006, 12/Apr/06; Antara 12/Apr/06; Kompas 15/Apr/06; Jakarta Post 21/Apr/06)