IN January 2003, Papuan Regional Police officers raided the Merdey forest located in Manokwari district, and arrested illegal loggers camped within the forest. At the campsite, police discovered 16,000 cubic metres of felled merbau timber. Merbau is an extremely rare form of timber that only grows within Papuan forests. Police also seized heavy logging machinery, including a logging Nizan and a dump truck.

Strangely, nine of the illegal lo