Timber shortage and Aceh reconstruction

Each day the deafening sound of the chainsaws breaks the still of the forests in the district of Lhoong in Aceh Besar. Enormous hunger for timber to supply the reconstruction of post-tsunami Aceh are driving the local population to continue cutting trees in the forests.

March 14, 2006

The illegal cutting of the trees continues to this day, said Muhammad, a resident of Lhoong, in a conversation with Tempo last week. The 30-year old knew well the locations of the felled trees, the modus operandi by which the trees were felled, and the panglong (sawmill) where the stolen logs were sold to. Muhammd said only about 10 percent of the logs were used by the local residents for their own purpose. Most were sold to the panglong.

The

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