A loader sits atop a portion of the outward bound shipment onboard the ship MV Ardhianto as it is being loaded with a large consignment of plywood from some of the world’s most endangered forests, the Paradise Forests of Asia Pacific.
The forest crime patrol came across the ship just as newly
released maps reveal that most of the last areas of ancient forest
in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have already been given to
logging companies. The new map shows that 24 percent of Papua's
forests and as much 46 percent of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) forests
have already been sold as concessions.
Over the next couple of days a massive 9,000 cubic metres of
plywood from the Henrison Iriana mill, a subsidiary of one of
Indonesia's largest logging companies, Kayu Lapis Indonesia (KLI)
will be loaded onto two ships. The timber is bound for markets in
Asia and the US.
We have discovered that KLI's Henrison Iriana mill in Sorong in
Indonesia received timber from potentially illegal sources in
recent years. These sources supplied 70 percent of the mill's
timber in 2004. The latest maps back up the findings of the crime
patrol showing that much of the last ancient forests of Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea are destined for the chopping block.
Millions of hectares of forest to be destroyed
By the end of 2005, the Indonesian government had granted
logging concessions on 11.6 million hectares of forests in Papua
province to 65 logging companies. Closer scrutiny of the
concessions revealed that these 65 companies are actually owned by
only a few national and multinational logging companies such
as:
- Kayu Lapis Indonesia (Indonesia)
- Korindo Group (Korea, Indonesia)
- Barito Pacific (UK, Indonesia)
- Djajanti Group (Indonesia)
- PT Hanurata (Indonesia)
- PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber (subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau,
Malaysia)
In February, our investigations documented serious violations of
forestry regulations by a logging subsidiary of KLI, operating an
industrial logging concession near the Henrison Iriana mill in
Papua. This is KLI's largest concession in Indonesia and is a major
supplier to the mill.
The company must provide proof that all timber entering its
mills is from legal, well-managed sources and to provide documents
that show exactly where the timber came from to ensure they are not
from the last intact forest areas of the Paradise forests.
Already, much of the large, intact forests in
the Paradise Forests have already been cut down - 72 percent in
Indonesia and 60 percent in PNG. The new maps released by
Greenpeace and Forest Watch Indonesia showthat as much as 35 percent (29 million hectares) of what is left of
New Guinea Island's rainforest have already beengiven away as
concessions to logging companies.
This revelation comes just weeks after we released
groundbreaking satellite maps which reveal that the world's
forests are in critical condition. The maps provide evidence that
less than 10 percent of the Earth's land area remains as large
intact forest areas.
Papua province is home to the Paradise Forests largest undamaged
forests but logging companies, like KLI, are destroying them at an
unprecedented rate. At least 76 percent of logging in Indonesia,
including in Papua province, is illegal. The stolen timber is
likely to end up on the shelves of timber retailers in Japan,
Europe, or the US as cheap Meranti or Lauan plywood.
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