[NYTr] Illegal logging, road building threaten Sumatran tigers and tribes

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

World Wildlife Fund via ENN News - Jan 8, 2008
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/28861


Illegal logging, road building threaten Sumatran tigers and tribes

Field investigations in central Sumatra have found that the home of two
tribes of indigenous people and endangered elephants, tigers and
orang-utans faces being split in half by the construction of a legally
questionable highway for logging trucks servicing one of the worlds
largest paper companies.

The investigation, by WWF Indonesia and other scientific and
conservation groups, also found the crucial Bukit Tigapuluh Forest
Landscape threatened by illegal logging, clearing for plantations and
other roadbuilding  much of it linked to operations of Asia Pulp &
Paper (APP) and its partners.

The forest is one of the last large forests in Sumatra, boasts some of
the richest biodiversity on earth and is one of Indonesias most
important habitats for numerous species. It is the location of a
successful conservation project to reintroduce orangutans, which now
reside in a part of the landscape that is proposed for protected status
but is already being cleared by APP-affiliated companies, the report
found.

Clearing for the highway, which allows logging trucks easier access to
APPs pulp mills in Jambi Province, appears to have taken place after
APPs forestry operations in neighboring Riau Province were halted due
to a police investigation of illegal logging. APP partners have cleared
an estimated 20,000 hectares of natural forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh
landscape, with some clearing appearing to be in violation of
Indonesian law.

With its high conservation values, the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape should
be protected and thus all natural forest clearance in the area has to be
stopped, said Ian Kosasih, WWF-Indonesias Forest Program Director.

APP is one of the worlds largest paper companies and we believe its
global customers expect it to act like a responsible corporate citizen.
The company should commission independent assessments of the
conservation values of these areas in a publicly transparent manner
before any conversion takes place, and commit to protect and manage
conservation values identified in these areas.

Indonesian law has a set of criteria and requirements to be fulfilled
prior to conversion of natural forest. Yet evidence found during the
investigation indicates APP-affiliated companies converted hundreds of
hectares before fulfilling these requirements, thus violating
Indonesian law. Part of the area being cleared is in a proposed
Specific Protected Area that serves as habitat for about 90 Sumatran
orangutans recently introduced into the area for the first time in more
than 150 years.

Unplanned and illegal road building is especially devastating to such
areas, opening them up to poaching, illegal settlement and plantation
activities and undermining the viability of indigenous communities. One
of the tribes threatened by APP-linked activities is wholly dependent
on the Bukit Tigapuluh Landscape.

We urge APP and its partners to stop clearing any more natural forest
whose ecological, environmental and cultural conservation values have
not been determined and to stop sourcing any of its purchased wood from
such forests, Ian Kosasih said.

We also call on the government to ensure an end to all forms of forest
clearance found to violate national Indonesian laws and regulations.

The investigation report was released in Indonesia in January by WWF
Indonesia and partners, KKI WARSI, Zoological Society of London,
Frankfurt Zoological Society and Yayasan Program Konservasi Harimau
Sumatera (PKHS).