Illegal logging in West Papua – Suplied
Jayapura, Jubi, Efforts by authorities to end illegal logging in Papua are being hampered by forest management rights by customary community.
The Papua Police Spokesperson Senior Commissionaire Patrige Renwarin said it wasn’t easy to fight the illegal logging in Papua. He said some regions in Papua provided the authority to the customary community to manage their forest products for their daily needs.
“For instance, they can fell trees for housing or other needs in small quantities. But sometimes they collude with the authorities and some buyers will take advantage. The logs from the customary forests are usually sold to buyers for economic reasons,” Renwarin told Jubi on Tuesday afternoon (21/4/2015).
Further he said the customary people would protest if the police or other authorities seized the logs when selling to the buyers. They would say they did it for the sake of their families. “They said it was to pay their living cost and tuition fees for their children. I think it wouldn’t be a problem if they want to strict with the rule. But at the end this condition would be used by those who want taking benefits from the customary people,” he said.
He further said the Police also must act carefully to process the case of illegal logging while he admitted sometimes certain officers might be involved in this business. “If we have not obtained the A1-information or trusted information, we were not allowed to open the container which suspiciously loading the illegal logs. Because we could take to the pre-court if it wasn’t loaded the logs. Every related stakeholders must sit together to discuss the illegal logging issue in Papua to find the best solution,” he said.
Earlier, the Papua Legislative Council wants to perform the log moratorium in Papua, it would apply both to logs or processing log products. The Papua Legislative Council’s Commission IV Chairman, Boy Markus Dawir said this moratorium is important to ensure the people, businessmen and regional government to mutually get benefits. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
