A new law went into effect in January that decentralizes many of the government powers and which is creating huge uncertainty about how resources will be managed. The Parliament continues to censure President Wahid, and indeed, might even impeach him. In the confusion, both Indonesian and foreign companies are accelerating illegal logging. Further, Indonesia's overall economic decline has exacerbated the unemployment and poverty problems because many projects have been shut down or cancelled. The illegal logging yields no royalties or stumpage fees for reclamation of the logged areas or for public works or programs.
Any fees paid are illegal and go into the pockets of crooked officials.
We observed an irrigation project that cannot operate because the farmers dare not divert water into the irrigation canal. If they do, the loggers cannot float their wood out of the areas they are logging. And the benefits from the logging will be short lived, for the good wood is rapidly disappearing. When it is gone, the local people will no longer have the economic benefits from the logging and they will no longer have the forest. Betsy and her staff are working diligently to communicate to the local communities and to garner support to halt the illegal logging before it too late.