Sunday, June 02, 2002 10:11:30 AM

Forests: Greenpeace to the Rescue

Laksamana.Net - The Indonesian government’s invitation to the international conservation body Greenpeace to assist in fighting illegal logging was described by The Straits Times last week as a sign of desperation. 

Greenpeace certainly makes a strange bedfellow for Indonesia, although given reports that up to 80% of timber felled may be illegal, the situation of the nation’s forests certainly deserves urgent steps. 

It is also true, as Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim told the Singapore daily, that illegal logging only succeeds because there are people who want to keep on buying it. He drew a comparison with the international drug trade in pointing out how complex the situation was. 

The minister got together with representatives of Greenpeace on the sidelines of the sustainable economies conference in Bali. 

Greenpeace has long represented the shock troops of the conservation movement, with operations such as the ill-fated Rainbow Warrior (blown up by French bombs) a tribute to its organizational skills and its ability to make enemies. 

Makarim estimates Indonesia's illegal logging industry at around $5 billion a year. 

Greenpeace is expected to raise pressure on Western wholesalers and retailers to prove that timber they sell is legal. This adds to European pressure for all timber sold on the continent to be clearly marked as having come from sustainable forests. 

The Straits Times report also quoted Emmy Hafild, head of the environment group WALHI, as saying that most illegal timber was shipped first to Singapore or Malaysia, and then to its final markets in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. 

She said corruption within the Police, Customs and Navy meant that much of these shipments carried documentation to show that it was legal, in an indication of just how hard this battle would be to win. 

Makarim told Antara no agreement or special cooperation had been reached between the government and Greenpeace activists but Greenpeace International spokesperson Remi Peremier said the organization welcomed the government's invitation to monitor illegal logging. 

Greenpeace would be sending experts to Indonesia in the near future, he said. Greenpeace and other international enviromental groups would cooperate to monitor international trade of illegal timber from Indonesia's tropical forests. 

In another recent move concerning Indonesia’s forests, Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) called for attention to Indonesia’s secondary forests, and not just virgin forests, since the future of these forests represented important factors in the worlds’ ecology. 

http://www.laksamana.net/vnews.cfm?ncat=33&news_id=2820