Globalization Lays Siege to Forests and Communities:
Indonesia

Take Action to help Abi Kusno Nachran.

"These illegal loggers are like terrorists. It is difficult to combat illegal logging because we must face financial backers and their shameless protectors both from the Indonesian armed forces and police, and from other government agencies."
— Nabiel Makarim, Indonesia's Environment Minister

Tanjung Puting park in Indonesian Borneo is home to thousands of native plant and animal species, all put at risk by illegal rainforest logging.

To save Indonesia's forests from destruction, journalist Abi Kusno Nachran nearly paid with his life.

Abi Kusno Nachran used his local newspaper to expose illegal logging financed by Abdul Rasyid, a notorious timber baron and a member of the Indonesian Parliament. National newspapers published Nachran's investigative reports of suspected timber smuggling from Tanjung Puting Park — a protected conservation area in Indonesian Borneo.

Without enforced timber regulations in the park, the number of loggers exporting products to other parts of the Indonesia and abroad is rapidly increasing.

These reports led to the seizure of cargo ships bound for China loaded with contraband logs extracted from the park. Subsequent investigations linked these ships to Rasyid's ‘Tanjung Lingga' group of companies. In response to his articles, Nachran was brutally attacked by thugs — suspected employees of Rasyid — armed with machetes. His attackers severed four of his fingers, nearly cut off his right arm, and mutilated his body with gashes. In the hospital and struggling to survive, Nachran continued to receive death threats.

Nachran's story typifies the level of violence routinely used to silence those who protest illegal logging in Indonesia. Other environmental advocates who have investigated the Tanjung Lingga company's illegal smuggling activities have been beaten, threatened with death and arrested by local police. Journalists, activists, and community members that attempt to expose or protest Indonesia's illegal timber trade are vulnerable to threats and violence from timber barons such as Rasyid.

Without enforced timber regulations in the park, the number of loggers exporting products to other parts of the Indonesia and abroad is rapidly increasing.

The Indonesian government's failure to protect those who investigate and publicize human rights abuses and environmental crimes can be attributed to widespread and systematic corruption throughout the country's public and private sectors. At least 70% of logging in Indonesia is illegal and is perpetuated by local military, police and forestry officials who exploit the country's natural resources for personal gain.

The Indonesian military, dependent on "business activities" for funds, plays a major role in illegal deforestation. The military has exerted pressure on the government to allow mining for valuable minerals in protected forest areas. However, mining pollutes local waters with chemicals and increases the loss of forest cover — resulting in floods, landslides, and the loss of livelihood for many forest-dependent communities. Additionally, mining threatens the habitat for the area's endangered wildlife.

The World Bank recently described Indonesia as facing "a species extinction of planetary proportions." The Bank estimated that at current rates of destruction, Indonesia's rainforests will be logged out by 2010. As most unprotected forest areas have been decimated by logging, illegal loggers have moved on to protected parks such as Tanjung Puting — no forest area is off limits.

Tanjung Puting National Park is one of the most spectacular places on earth. It is home to numerous species of rare and endangered birds, mammals, reptiles (including the estuarine crocodile), clouded leopard and Malayan sunbear. The forests of Tanjung Puting are under such a great assault by illegal loggers that the park's rich tropical habitat could vanish in a few short years. The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry estimates that about 40% of the park has already been damaged by illegal logging and forest fires.

The loggers in Tanjung Puting are after ramin, a highly valuable clear-grain wood used in many common products and found only in Malaysia and Indonesia. Although Indonesia instituted an official ban on ramin logging and listed it as a threatened species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the wood finds its way to the international market through corrupt customs officials. Middlemen in Malaysia and Singapore purchase the smuggled wood, obtain false documents describing the wood as legal, and import it to China.

From there the logs of threatened tree species are finished and exported to the United States and other countries in the form of futons, picture frames, window blinds and tool handles. Indonesia's rate of forest destruction — the highest in the workd — is driven by international demand for cheap timber and paper products. When American consumers buy ramin wood products they are more than likely participating in the supply chain of illegal timber that begins in parks like Tanjung Putting — forests that Abi Kusno Nachran and other defenders have risked their lives to protect.

Abi Kusno Nachran remains undeterred in his efforts. He continues to write about Rasyid's operations in the newspaper and has been an outspoken critic of local police, who have yet to bring his attackers to justice. Nachran's work has helped generate national and international pressure on Indonesia's government to take action against the illegal timber trade. Rasyid has been freed from prosecution because of parliamentary immunity. He persists in using his economic and political clout to devastate the few forested areas remaining.