By IPS Correspondents
JAKARTA, Mar 1 2005 (IPS)

Environmentalists are opposing the plan of the government to cut down more trees in one of the largest national parks in Indonesia to help rebuild tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

”We don’t want Gunung Leuser National Park to be cleared as the source of logs for Aceh,” Henri Bastaman, senior advisor to the Minister of Environment, told IPS.

”Targeting the park as the resource of logs for reconstructing the tsunami-devastated province would completely destroy the area,” Bastaman said.

The Ministry of Forestry estimated that about 8.5 million cubic metres of timber are needed to build 123,000 houses for Acehnese who survived the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster. Of the total figure, six million cubic meters will be in the form of logs and the remaining 2.5 million cubic meters will be sawn.

The epicenter of the undersea quake, the day after Christmas, was at Meulaboh in western Aceh. That spawned tsunamis that hit the coastlines of a dozen countries in South and South- east Asia killing over 220,000. In Aceh, more than 70 percent of the inhabitants of some coastal villages are reported to have died.

The official death toll is at 111,171, while more than 127,000 others remain missing. The exact number of victims will probably never be known.

”The government’s argument is that we have the Gunung Leuser in Aceh so we should use it. But we don’t see it as the solution,” Bastaman said.

Instead of clearing the protected forests in the Gunung National Park, Bastaman suggested that the government either import wood or ask developed countries to provide timber to construct new homes, schools and fishing boats for tsunami victims.

Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar rejected the plan to exploit Gunung Leuser, which comprises 850,000 hectares of tropical rainforest and instead asked other countries and aid agencies to donate logs for the reconstruction of Aceh. So far, Sweden has expressed its intention to supply logs for Aceh’s reconstruction.

”The rehabilitation of Aceh must not damage our forests,” Witoelar said, adding that cutting down trees in the Gunung Leuser National Park would lead to other calamities like floods and landslides.

Even before the tsunami struck Aceh, Gunung Leuser National Park, one of the last places in Indonesia where the endangered Sumatran tigers, orang-utans, rhinoceros and elephants all exist, has been threatened.

The non-governmental Indonesian Forum for the Environment disclosed that one fifth of the national park has been affected by illegal logging and the destruction is increasing with the construction of a road network, known as the Ladia Galaska project, which cuts through hundreds of kilometres of protected forests in Aceh to link the eastern and western coasts of the province.

The main section of the Ladia Galaska road will cut through 100 kilometers of protected forests and 1.5 kilometers of forest conservation areas, including the Leuser ecosystem.

The 2.6 million hectare Leuser ecosystem, which encloses the Gunung Leuser National Park, is known to biologists as the most complete natural laboratory in the world. It is made up of coastal beaches, lowland swamps, degraded lowland rainforest, extensive pristine mountain forest, and isolated alpine meadows and is rich in animal and plant species.

”The Ladia Galaska is a crazy project. Imagine building a road in a very steep and protected forest area,” Longgena Ginting, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, said in an interview.

”The Ladia Galaska road project has opened up the Gunung Leuser National Park all the more to illegal loggers,” Ginting stressed.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment regarded the road network project as ”illegal” because no feasibility study was conducted before the construction.

Eko Soebowo, a geologist at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, argued that six of the nine planned roads would cross the Sumatra fault line and would thus be prone to earthquakes and landslides.

The Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure, however, emphasised that the road construction, which started in 2002, would accelerate the rural economy of the western part of the province.

After the tsunami devastated Aceh, supporters of the Ladia Galaska network, are using the catastrophe to legitimise the road construction, which is still ongoing despite strong opposition by environmental groups.

”We’re worried that the tsunami tragedy is being used to affirm the road construction in the province,” Ginting said. ”We have to stop the road construction project and prevent Gunung Leuser National Park as the source of logs.”

According to Forest Watch Indonesia, it would be very risky if all the logs needed for the reconstruction of Aceh would be sourced domestically because this would worsen illegal logging in the country.

Indonesia, home to 10 percent of the world’s remaining tropical forests, has the world’s highest rate of deforestation – with about three million hectares being lost every year. Indonesian police, military and government officials often turn a blind eye to illegal logging and this further exacerbates the problem.

Environmental activists pointed out that the high demand for timber in the growing national and international markets and limited supply causes illegal logging to thrive in the country and results in increasing pressure on Indonesia’s forests.

Forest Watch Indonesia disclosed that only 20 percent of the country’s total demand can be met by legitimate cutting of trees.

Last year, the demand from the local timber industry averaged between 63 million and 80 million cubic meters of logs. Of this, 12 million cubic meters of logs were provided through legitimate cutting.

Togu Manurung, executive officer of Forest Watch Indonesia, pointed out that some of the logs being used in rebuilding Aceh were illegally cut from protected forests.

”The government should declare publicly and transparently that some of the logs used for rebuilding Aceh come from illegal logging operations,” Manurung said.

He pointed out that some Acehnese are aware that the logs they are using for rebuilding their province were illegally cut, but it did not matter to them.

”So far, there was no rejection on the part of the Acehnese because they have no choice,” Manurung said.

”Providing illegally cut logs for the rebuilding of Aceh should not be tolerated as this would induce illegal loggers to continue their operations,” added Manurung. ”With the government allowing the use of illegal logs, it is giving incentives to illegal loggers.”

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