---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Straits Times July 23 1999 Indonesia's new law still exploits forests and land rights By MARIANNE KEARNEY IN JAKARTA INDONESIA'S current Parliament is set to pass the largest piece of environmental legislation since 1970 but environmental activists and the World Bank say Indonesia's proposed forestry law is a step backwards for forest conservation. Environmentalists, lawyers and non-government organisations say the new law does not differ from previous laws because it "still follows the spirit of exploiting and dominating our forests", said Mr Majun, an environmentalist from Kalimantan. The existing land and forestry laws are responsible for dispossessing thousands of traditional communities, often with very little financial compensation. One of the most controversial aspects of the new law is that, like the previous law, it ignores traditional land rights known as adat law. This has angered environmental groups from Kalimantan and Irian Jaya, who say the rights of traditional communities to manage forests are ignored. Mr Anung Karyadi, from environmental group Wahli, said: "The Forestry Department still has two aims -- to conserve and to exploit forests." Mr Thomas Walton, a senior environmental specialist with the World Bank, which has made its loans contingent on reforms in forestry, said the laws failed to satisfy reforms required by his organisation in the last loan approved in May. "We have been urging them to set up some kind of consultative body within the Forestry Department but they obviously haven't," he said. The World Bank was particularly critical, he added, because the Forestry Department ignored recommendations by its own reform group and as a result, the new laws are more pro-development than pro-conservation. Mr Emil Salim, former Environment Minister and leader of the Forestry Reform group, said: "The whole law is very much government-controlled, very much top down. Where is the role of the people? Where is the role of the civil society? It's not there." He blames the centralistic government control of forestry concessions as being responsible for widespread corruption in forestry management. He said the major concern of the Forestry Department was economic benefit, not bio-diversity nor the importance of habitat. Parliamentarians such as Mr Elyas admitted that the current Parliament did not have enough time to modify the laws in order to include adat law. Mr Majun predicted that the new laws would allow large-scale timber companies to continue to convert Indonesia's dwindling forests into timber plantations. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 24 Jul 1999 jam 04:39:55 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
