Indonesian Business Groups Will Oppose Chinese Logging In Papua New Guinea

[hatrack]

Pardon me for pointing this out, but isn't that kind of like John Wayne Gacy slamming Richard Speck for being "too mean"?

:eyes:

Environmental and business groups joined hands here Tuesday in opposing a Chinese company's plan to invest in forestry in Papua, saying the project could accelerate the destruction of forests in the resource-rich province. The government is conducting a feasibility study on the plan by China Light to establish a timber processing factory in Papua. Some of the products would reportedly support the construction of facilities for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Bogor-based environmental group Telapak and the Indonesian Furniture Industry and Handicrafts Association (Asmindo) said the planned project could pose serious threats to Papua's remaining pristine forests, as well as harming the country's revenues from furniture exports. Telapak investigator Yayat Afianto said the US$1 billion scheme would further reduce the province's remaining natural forests and fuel illicit logging practices. "Indonesia and China have not yet established detailed action plans to monitor timber trading between the two countries. That poses a threat to Papua's forests," he told a media gathering here.

EDIT

Earlier in 2005, EIA and Telapak released a report asserting that more than US$1 billion worth of merbau trees were being smuggled out of Papua every year. Following the report, the government launched two operations in Papua against illegal loggers, seizing more than a half-million cubic meters of illegal wood and arresting more than a dozen foreign and local timber barons and financiers. However, all the suspects were later acquitted due to lack of evidence. Asmindo chairman Ambar Tjahyono said foreign investment would also harm furniture industries in Papua due to fears of vanishing local raw materials.

"We oppose any move to allow the Chinese investor into Papua, not only because China's timber demand is fueling illegal logging, but also because it would hurt domestic firms," he said. The Chinese government denied it was plundering the world's rain forests, including Papua's, to meet its booming demand for wood, calling the allegations groundless. "The Chinese government consistently upholds and practices collective international responsibility, opposing and cracking down on illegal logging and illegal wood imports," China's State Forestry Administration spokesman Cao Qingyao said as quoted by AFP. "We have very strict import controls," he added.

Excuse me for a moment while I :rofl:

EDIT

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060816.H02&irec=1