A report accuses Jakarta of inaction against the
                 illegal loggers, while the World Bank fears the
                 forests face depletion within two decades

                 JAKARTA -- Indonesia's illegal logging industry is
                 backed by high-level corruption, an international
                 environmental group said in Jakarta yesterday as the
                 World Bank warned that the country's commercial
                 forests could be depleted within 10 to 15 years.

                 "The government has to deal with the corruption and
                 collusion that is behind the illegal logging" in national
                 parks, Mr Dave Currey of the Environmental
                 Investigation Agency (EIA) told reporters after
                 addressing a World Bank-sponsored forestry seminar.

                 The British- and US-based non-governmental
                 organisation made its allegation after presenting a report
                 on illegal logging at the Tanjung Puting national forest in
                 central Kalimantan to a group of Indonesia's major aid
                 donors.

                 Ms Faith Doherty of the EIA and Mr Ambrosius
                 Ruwindrijarto of its Indonesian partner Telapak said
                 they had been attacked last Saturday by workers at a
                 sawmill in Pangkalan Bun town at the entrance of the
                 forest about 900 km northeast of Jakarta.

                 The pair were detained by local police for several hours
                 before being "rescued" by the Indonesian military and
                 other environmentalists.

                 The mill, P.T. Tanjung Lingga, is owned by Indonesian
                 MP Abdul Rasyid and sits at the entrance to the reserve,
                 a diminishing tropical rainforest filled with rare animal
                 and plant species, including many of the country's
                 protected orangutans.

                 The World Bank estimates Indonesia's tropical
                 rainforests are disappearing by some 1.5 million hectares
                 a year.

                 At the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) meeting,
                 the World Bank delivered a paper saying that
                 Indonesia's commercial forests could be exhausted in
                 less than two decades if rampant illegal logging and
                 clearing, weak law enforcement and other poor
                 practices were not stopped.

                 "It is feared that, at the present rate, the commercially
                 valuable forest resources will be exhausted within 10 to
                 15 years," said the report.

                 The report also said demand for wood from the
                 Indonesian timber industry and world buyers was two to
                 three times greater than sustainable supply.

                 "No effective steps have yet been taken by the
                 government of Indonesia to reduce illegal logging," it
                 said, adding that other problems included understated
                 figures for burnt forest areas, increasing social conflict
                 and poor law enforcement.

                 Media commentator Wimar Witoelar told the
                 conference the military and police were heavily involved
                 in the illegal logging trade.

                 "All of the suffering that we are enduring now is for
                 private gain. You cannot quantify what's really a moral
                 issue," he said.

                 World Bank country director Mark Baird said he
                 expected more grants for Indonesia's troubled forestry
                 sector at the CGI annual summit on Feb 1-2. -- AFP

                       Adapted from The Straits Times, 17 Jan 2000.