12 April 2006 - Sorong,
Papua, Indonesia — Activists on board the Rainbow
Warrior have intercepted a shipment of suspected
illegal timber from the Paradise Forests whilst
on forest crime patrol in Indonesia.
The forest crime patrol came across the ship just
as newly released maps reveal that most of the
last areas of ancient forest in Papua New Guinea
and Indonesia have already been given to logging
companies. The new map shows that 24 percent of
Papua’s forests and as much 46 percent of Papua
New Guinea’s (PNG) forests have already been sold
as concessions.
Over the next couple of days
a massive 9,000 cubic metres of plywood from the
Henrison Iriana mill, a subsidiary of one of Indonesia's
largest logging companies, Kayu Lapis Indonesia
(KLI) will be loaded onto two ships. The timber
is bound for markets in Asia and the US.
We have discovered that KLI's
Henrison Iriana mill in Sorong in Indonesia received
timber from potentially illegal sources in recent
years. These sources supplied 70 percent of the
mill's timber in 2004. The latest maps back up
the findings of the crime patrol showing that
much of the last ancient forests of Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea are destined for the chopping
block.
Millions of hectares of forest to be destroyed
By the end of 2005, the Indonesian
government had granted logging concessions on
11.6 million hectares of forests in Papua province
to 65 logging companies. Closer scrutiny of the
concessions revealed that these 65 companies are
actually owned by only a few national and multinational
logging companies such as:
• Kayu Lapis Indonesia, Korindo Group (Korea,
Indonesia)
• Barito Pacific (UK, Indonesia)
• Djajanti Group (Indonesia)
• PT Hanurata (Indonesia)
• PT Wapoga Mutiara Timber (subsidiary of Rimbunan
Hijau, Malaysia)
In February, our investigations
documented serious violations of forestry regulations
by a logging subsidiary of KLI, operating an industrial
logging concession near the Henrison Iriana mill
in Papua. This is KLI's largest concession in
Indonesia and is a major supplier to the mill.
The company must provide proof
that all timber entering its mills is from legal,
well-managed sources and to provide documents
that show exactly where the timber came from to
ensure they are not from the last intact forest
areas of the Paradise forests.
Already, much of the large, intact forests in
the Paradise Forests have already been cut down
- 72 percent in Indonesia and 60 percent in PNG.
The new maps released by Greenpeace and Forest
Watch Indonesia show that as much as 35 percent
(29 million hectares) of what is left of New Guinea
Island’s rainforest have already been given away
as concessions to logging companies.
This revelation comes just weeks after we released
groundbreaking satellite maps which reveal that
the world's forests are in critical condition.
The maps provide evidence that less than 10 percent
of the Earth's land area remains as large intact
forest areas.
Papua province is home to the
Paradise Forests largest undamaged forests but
logging companies, like KLI, are destroying them
at an unprecedented rate. At least 76 percent
of logging in Indonesia, including in Papua province,
is illegal. The stolen timber is likely to end
up on the shelves of timber retailers in Japan,
Europe, or the US as cheap Meranti or Lauan plywood.
You have a chance to help save
the Paradise Forests. Join the Paradise Forests
Virtual March and add your voice to save the last
ancient forests.
