‘No More Logging Around Wasior’
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Banjir Ambarita | October 12, 2010


Jakarta. After denying that the deadly flash floods in Wasior, West Papua, were caused by illegal logging, Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Tuesday said he planned to reclassify existing forest concessions near the district into conservation areas. 

Forest concessions are essentially production forests, where concession holders are allowed to carry out commercial logging. 

Conservation concessions, on the other hand, will allow private holders to earn money through the carbon trading mechanism in exchange for preserving the trees. 
Based on ministry data, there are 22 active forest concessions in West Papua, none of them located in Wasior. 

“We are planning to change these production forests into conservation areas so that these [concession] holders will shift to carbon trading,” Zulkifli said. 

At least 145 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands of homes were damaged when torrential rains triggered landslides in Wasior and caused a river to burst its banks on Oct. 4. 

More than 100 people are still missing. 

Activists have blamed illegal logging for the disaster, a charge that has been denied by the government. 

Zulkifli said it was impossible that the floods were caused by illegal logging because the district was classified as a reserve. 

“Wasior is already a nature reserve area which is the highest status for conservation,” he said.

“Besides, the area itself is very dangerous because [the landscape] is too steep,” he said. 

He added that his previous statement that illegal logging caused the flash floods was misquoted by the media. 

“I did say that there is still illegal logging but that’s in West Papua, not in Wasior, because there are no forest concessionaires and no illegal logging there,” he said. 

“The flash floods were caused by the land textures that were too steep and intense rains.” 

However, legislators from Papua accused the government of lying when they denied illegal logging contributed to the disaster. 

Paskalis Kossay, a Golkar lawmaker, said the government should not forget the protests in 2001 and 2002, when angry villagers assaulted the Papua offices of three logging companies, resulting in the death of five police officials, three employees and an unknown number of villagers. 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said he would visit Wasior today to see for himself whether illegal logging caused the flash floods. 

The local lawmakers, frustrated by what they deemed to be the government’s slow relief efforts, also demanded that the site be declared a disaster area. 

Ishak Mandacan, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said the latest reports revealed that more than 2,000 victims were staying at a local port without enough food or a decent place to rest. 

Siti Romlah, a worker at the Manokwari health center, said evacuees in Manokwari have begun contracting diarrhea, respiratory illness and malaria. 

“From the 1,078 people currently housed at the military base in Manokwari, 535 are now ill, as much as 172 contracted respiratory illnesses while others are suffering from malaria and skin diseases,” Siti said on Tuesday. 

The lack of health facilities and poor sanitation at the location was exacerbating the situation, she said. 

Ishak said he had requested his party leaders devote more attention to helping the victims but had not received a response. 

“On the contrary, I was asked to give Rp 15 million [$1,700] as contribution for the Democrat anniversary celebration.”


Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/no-more-logging-around-wasior/401017