From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Subject: Tropical Island to be Razed, please write!  (RAN #78)
Organization: Save the Humans!
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 18:27:56 GMT



Action Alert #78      Rainforest Action Network       November 1992


                 Indonesian Island Slated for Logging

               Erosion could devastate island of Yamdena

[map of Indonesia with Yamdena inset]

From the air, Yamdena, one of Indonesia's "Spice Islands," looks like an
idyllic tropical paradise, teeming with lush rainforests and turquiose coral
reefs.  But timber contractors, led by one of the world's richest men, are
moving in to log the forest, raising fears among Yamdena's inhabitants that
with the forest gone, erosion will strip the island of its topsoil and the
island will "sink" into the sea.

    In July 1991, the Department of Forestry gave PT Alam Nusa Segar (PT ANS)
permission to log 164,000 of ;the island's 172,000 hectares of forests.  The
company's owner, Liem Sioe Liong, is President Suharto's economic advisor and
head of the Salim Group, Indonesia's largest conglomerate.  He holds large
stakes in Indonesia's cement, flour, automobile, processed food, and palm oil
industries, and is the largest commercial landlord in Singapore.  Liong's
interests in forest-based products is relatively new, but growing quickly.

    Timber products are Indonesia's second major export after oil and gas.
The country fulfills 85% of the world's demand for hardwood plywood.  The
World Bank has estimated that Indonesia loses approximately one million
hectares of its forests annually.  Much of the deforestation is caused by
logging.

    Representatives from Yamdena have tried every approach to stop the
destructive logging.  In July, 70 members of the Association of Tanimbar
Intellectuals (ICTI) met with Indonesian forestry minister Hasrul Harahap and
charged him with violating a government decree of 1971 which declared 72,000
hectares of the island's forests protected.

    The minister made it clear that the goverment will continue to permit
logging by PT ANS while the government completes a study.  He said stopping
the company would show disrespect toward the local offices recommending the
permit.

    Minister Harahap also said he doubted that logging could cause Yamdena to
sink.  "There are many islands on this earth that don't have forest cover," he
said, "and they haven't sunk."

    However, an ICTI study shows that forest degradation in Yamdena will cause
an annual erosion of 10 toms of soil per hectare.  The island's thin topsoil
skin of only 50 cm lies on top of limestone.  It takes 100 years for
limestone areas to add one centimeter to the topsoil, making it nearly
impossible to restore logged land.  The study leader, Abdulla Abbas Idjuddin
of the Java-based Agroclimate and Land Research Centre, says logging will
gradually reduce Yamdena to a lump of limestone, which will eventually be
washed down to the sea.

    In September, frustrated villagers took matters into their own hands.
Attacking the PT ANS base camp, they burned a truck and destroyed several
buildings.  PT ANS employees refused to show up for work for two days
afterwards, fearing reprisals.  The company retaliated by calling in military
to arrest and beat up villagers.  According to one repoprt from Jakarta, one
person was shot in the scuffle and up to 30 people were jailed.

    In Yamdena, islanders and environmentalists face an uphill and critical
battle.  In a matter of months, if logging continues, erosion could disrupt
villagers' delicate water supply.  ICTI and the Indonesian Network of Forest
Conservation (SKEPHI) have called for a halt to the logging, and the
participation of NGOs in all concession reviews.


WHAT YOU CAN DO

1)  Write a polite, but firm, letter to the Ministers of Forestry and
Environment and tell them that Indonesia's greatest asset is its rich and
beautiful natural resources.  If these resources are lost, you will take your
tourist dollars elsewhere.  Request that the decree of 1971 dclaring Yamdena's
forests protected be respected and enforced.

Forestry Minister                    Environment Minister
Hasrul Harahap                       Emil Salim
Manggala Wanabakti                   Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara No. 7
Jl. Garot Subroto                    Jakarta, Indonesia
Jakarta, INdonesia

2)  Write to RAN, Attn: yamdena Pamphlet, for s copy of SKEPHI's publication
"To Sink the Island: Logging Problem in Yamdena."  Please enclose copies of
your letters to the Indonesian ministers.

Rainforest Action Network, 450 Sansome, Suite 700, San Francisco, Ca. 94111
(415)398-4404

-----------other stuff------------
RAN's new full-color catalog is now available!
[call for a gift catalog 800-989-RAIN]
----------------------------------
Governor Wilson Vetoes Tropical Timber Bill (Sept 30)
----------------------------------
Ecuador Update:  [Sept 26-28 indegenous, oil workers, and environmentalists
met to discuss a future coalition and Maxus and Texaco.]
----------------------------------
[RAN and Greenpeace blockade World Bank headquarters with a 10-foot high "dam",
also ran ads in Washington Post and New York Times. (Sept 23)]

Transcribed by Cameron Spitzer, cls@truffula.sj.ca.us.
Sometimes it's hard to resist adding little editorial comments to these
bulletins.  Obviously the island is not going to actually sink below
sea level in the next few years.  But if the company takes 90% of the forest,
its people will certainly die, and the surrounding reefs will be ruined by
siltation.
Newsgroups: alt.save.the.earth