Forwarded from ips.englibrary conference.
Remark: Moluccas = Maluku.
IPS, Jakarta, Dewi Sartika, Sept 10 - From the air, the island of
Yamdena in Indonesia with its lush rainforests and turquoise coral reefs
looks like an idyllic tropical island paradise.
But timber contractors are moving in to cut the trees, and
Yamdena's inhabitants fear that with the forest gone, their
island will just sink into the sea.
Yamdena is part of the 'Spice Islands' in the Moluccas about
1,500 km east of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where officials
have given logging tycoon Liem Sioe Liong permission to move into
the island with his chainsaws.
More than half of the 320,000 hectare island is rainforest,
which was decreed protected in 1971 by the government. But Liem's
PT Alam Nusa Segar (PT ANS) began logging in Yamdena in January
and has already hauled away 15,000 cubic metres of wood.
The islanders have always been against the concession, arguing
the decree was never rescinded. they say by granting it to PT
ANS, the government violated its own rules.
But while the legal argument is still being raised, some
islanders and environmental activists are worried about the
ecological impact of the logging.
According to a study commissioned by the Association of
Tanimbar Intellectuals (ICTI), forest degradation in Yamdena will
cause an annual erosion of 10 tonnes of soil per hectare.
The island has a skin of topsoil only 50 cm thick sitting on
limestone. It takes 100 years for limestone areas to add one cm
to the topsoil, making it nearly impossible to restore the land
after the forests are gone.
The study team's leader, Abdulla Abbas Idjuddin of the Java-
based Agroclimate and Land Research Centre, says logging will
gradually reduce Yamdena to a lump of limestone, which will
eventually be washed down to the sea.
Idjuddin added that several islands in the Moluccas have
already been submerged because of erosion of denuded topsoil.
The Forestry Department in Jakarta has agreed to form its own
study team that will look further into the issue. But Forestry
Minister Hasyrul Harahap has declined to include environmental
non-government organisations (NGOs) in the effort.
Harahap said recently he doubted that logging could cause
Yamdena to sink. ''There are many islands on this earth that have
no forest cover,'' he said, ''And they haven't sunk.''
Environmentalists are outraged. They point to Tapak Kuda
island in northern Sumatra which is sinking because its mangroves
have been cut. Tapak Kuda residents have been asked to evacuate.
Near Yamdena is the island of Kei which was logged heavily by
a Dutch company in the late 19th century. Today, Kei has almost
no topsoil left and is covered with jagged rocks. People there
grow cassava with difficulty. Even fish has become a luxury.
In Yamdena, islanders and environmentalists face an uphill
fight. Timber products are Indonesia's second major export after
oil and gas. The Southeast Asian country supplies 85 percent of
the world's demand for hardwood plywood.
The World Bank has estimated that the country loses 700,000 to
1.2 million hectares of its forests annually. Logging is
responsible for a third of that amount.
Even Moluccas Governor Sebastianus Soekoso has stated that PT
ANS' activities in the island should not be questioned at all
since the firm is helping develop Yamdena's economy.
Harahap tried to convince parliament members, activists and
community leaders at a recent meeting about how important logging
was to Yamdena. He read out a letter from PT ANS laying out the
company's plans for the island, including building a health care
centre and a church and granting scholarships to village youth.
Logging company executives also projected an environment-
friendly image and said they will withdraw from Yamdena if the
government study proves PT ANS is disrupting the ecology of the
island. ''Why should we want to continue of it damages the
environment?'' asked Johannes Kotjo, a senior Liem aide.
Still, Harahap has made it clear PT ANS will be permitted to
continue logging in Yamdena while the government study is being
completed. He said stopping the firm would show disrespect toward
the local offices that recommended that the permit be granted.
The islanders have shown no signs of giving up. In mid-July some
200 villagers from Yamdena staged a demonstration in the logging
concession area. A short tussle between the protesters and the
loggers was settled quickly but PT ANS employees refused to report
for work for two days afterwards, fearing reprisals.