Legal and environmental experts are urging Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry to prosecute industrial timber plantation companies which have misused reforestation funds.
The groups say action should be taken if the government is serious in its drive to restructure the troubled forestry industry.
The Ministry of Forestry has already revoked the licences of 14 firms after investigations showed they were not financially or technically sound.
Forest concessionaires were allowed to borrow reforestation funds to develop industrial forests – but it is claimed many diverted the funds for other business purposes.
According to the Ministry of Forestry, total reforestation funds have amounted to R2.2 trillion for 94 companies since the six-year programme started in 1992.
Ibrahim Assegaf, director executive of the Centre for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies, said: “Legal action can be taken against errant firms. It is not about an absence of law, but the government’s will to uphold it.”