Nearly every week, the logging landscape in Indonesia shifts, with government officials, NGOs and activists clamoring-usually ineffectually-to slow the illegal destruction of the country's forests. In the latest development, palm oil firm Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) on Monday denied violating a logging moratorium on the very day it was enacted (May 20), according to Reuters.
The moratorium was enacted by Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Last week the Environmental Investigation Agency, a U.K.-based NGO, accused KLK of violating the moratorium in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, on the island Borneo.
"Crime and corruption in Indonesia's forestry sector has resulted in President Yudhoyono's moratorium being undermined the very day it was signed," said EIA forest campaigner Tomasz Johnson.
KLK told Reuters Monday the allegations from EIA were "preposterous," but the company did admit stopping an "over-eager" contractor from logging one of its legal concessions on Borneo. KLK's Plant Director Roy Lim said "existing concessions with valid licenses are exempted from the moratorium."
In its report, EIA also condemns the government of Norway for profiting from illegal forest destruction in Indonesia. As part of the United Nation's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degredation (REDD) campaign, Norway has pledged $1 billion to Indonesia to better protect its forests; however, EIA showed that Norway's government "has invested in scores of plantation and logging companies" in Indonesia.
