New rules don’t impede rain forest development
JAKARTA, Indonesia — In a remote corner of Borneo, an Indonesian company and its Chinese partner are pushing ahead with an industrial wood plantation in a tropical forest and orangutan habitat, apparently flouting government regulations intended to prevent a repeat of disastrous fires in 2015.
Photos and drone footage taken by activists in late July show an extensive drainage canal full of water, heavy earthmoving equipment on the land and planting of seedlings despite an order in March from the Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya to cease operations.
The exploitation of the 140,850-acre Sungai Putri forest, which is home to as many as 1,200 critically endangered orangutans, and Chinese investment in a related wood-processing plant is supported by provincial and district officials in West Kalimantan on the giant island of Borneo. But it is in conflict with the central government’s unevenly enforced moratorium on the drainage and exploitation of Indonesia’s extensive peatlands, which was instituted after disastrous dry season fires in 2015.
The fires, which spread across 6.4 million acres and blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand in a health-damaging haze, were worsened by El Niño dry conditions but also underlined the huge risks that pulp wood and palm oil companies have taken in draining swampy peatlands for industrial plantations, making the peatlands highly combustible. The World Bank estimated the fires caused losses of $16 billion.
A representative of local communities in Sungai Putri said villagers didn’t know about the government freeze on peatland drainage when the Indonesian company, Mohairson Pawan Khatulistiwa, sought their agreement for what it called a trial plantation and digging of a canal to transport wood to a factory.
They now want the agreement, which involved $300 of compensation for each hectare (2.47 acres) of land taken by the canal, canceled.
“At that time we did not know that canals should not be created on peatlands,” said Abram, who uses one name. “So, frankly speaking, we felt lied to.”
The Indonesian company is working with a Chinese wood-processing business Benshang Advanced Materials Co. which according to the website of the Ketapang district government in West Kalimantan is investing $300 million in the area, including a factory. Employees reached by telephone at a Ketapang office shared by the two companies declined to comment.
The government’s commitment to protecting and restoring peatlands has become muddied following pressure from industry and provincial governments. An April 25 letter from the governor of West Kalimantan province to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo asserts that restricting use of peatlands will threaten nearly 90,000 jobs and jeopardize billions of dollars of exports.
Jokowi in July said that ministries should not issue new regulations that scare away investors.