Cutting out Kalimantan’s Heart
In Central Kalimantan’s Tanjung Puting National Park—one of the largest conservation forests in Indonesia—millions of cubic meters of ramin (Gonystylus spp) and meranti (Shorea spp) trees are cut down, hauled out and sold illegally, costing the country more than Rp70 billion a year.
Pangkalan Bun, the capital of the West Kotawaringin Regency in Central Kalimantan, has become the most important base for the illegal business, a trade which is spreading like a contagion. It has given birth to a “local king” who has the power to make people from illegal loggers to high-ranking officials tremble with fear. His name is Abdul Rasyid, one of the members of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) from the Golkar Party.
Who is Abdul Rasyid? Is it true that he is the mastermind behind the massive timber theft in Tanjung Puting? Follow TEMPO’s investigation.
October 22, 2002
ARING can no longer adorn the young lady’s ring finger. The finger joint is deformed, bent upwards noticeably every time she puts her palm flat on the table. Two weeks ago, at TEMPO office’s meeting room, Faith Doherty, a senior investigator from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) told the story of how she came to acquire it. Two years ago, on the second floor of PT Tanjung Lingga Group’s headquarters in P