Indonesia: Industrial forest output to increase 36 percent

The supply of logs from the country's industrial forest (HTI) is expected to rise by 36 percent to 18.5 million cubic meters next year with the issuance of more forest development licenses, a director at the forestry ministry said.

"More than 300,000 hectare of production forests can be harvested next year. That will amount to an additional five million cubic meters of log supply," said Bedjo Santosa, the director for production forest development.

Bedjo said about 60 percent of logs from HTI would go to the pulp and paper sector, but the rest would go to wood-based industries.

Indonesia recognizes five sources of legal logs: HTI, community based forests (HTR), natural forests, land clearing projects and plantation tree rejuvenation projects such as those carried out in rubber plantations.

Amid depleting natural forest resources the government has been engaging in various initiatives to boost the production capacity of HTI and HTR. Between 2004 and 2008 the production of logs from natural forests had fallen from 25 million cubic meters to just 7.4 million cubic meters.

In supporting HTI, the government has been aggressive in issuing licenses for the opening of new plantation sites for logging. Data from the ministry of forestry shows the total size of HTI sites has reached 4.2 million hectares with a total production capacity of 13.5 million cubic meters of logs per year. The size of HTI plantation sites is expected to grow to five million hectares by the end of the year, Bedjo said.

Bedjo said the ministry had in fact issued licenses for 11.9 million hectares of HTI, but the full implementation of these permits would have to wait for further approval from respective regional governments.

"As the production of logs from the natural forests is declining, we've accelerated the development of HTI and HTR to meet demand from forestry-based industries."

Indonesia currently has 3.58 million hectares of HTR forests, 2.74 million hectares of which are located in Java, with a total production capacity of 6 million cubic meters of logs per year from all HTR forests.

Indonesia's domestic demand for logs reached 80 million cubic meters in 2008 while the supply of legal logs amounted to less than 30 million cubic meters, comprising logs from HTI, HTR and natural forests.

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Issued by:  The Jakarta Post

Author: Benget Besalicto Tnb

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Issue date: November 13, 2009

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