In the new report Rogue Traders: The Murky Business of Merbau Timber Smuggling in Indonesia, London-based EIA and Indonesian group Telapak identify businessmen Ricky Gunawan and Hengky Gosal as two of the major players in smuggling illicit merbau timber
For most people contact with customs officers is normally limited to deciding whether to choose the green or red channel when arriving at airports. Yet customs agents have a vital role to play in combating environmental crime
Recent news from Indonesia on revisions made to the Papua Provincial Spatial Plan, made public this month, gives rise to significant hopes that large areas of Papua’s forests may be saved from conversion to plantations and agricultural estates, at least in the short-to-medium term.
Good news from Indonesia in the past month relates to timber legality and trade. On the 1st September, Indonesia’s SVLK (Timber Legality Verification System) came into force, having been passed by a Minister of Forestry Regulation in 2009
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) commends Norway’s divestment of its pension fund’s shares in Malaysian logger Samling Global this week, but calls for a more comprehensive review of the fund’s wider investments of over $400 million in other controversial forestry and plantation companies
Right now Indonesia is in the midst of a crucial struggle to tame the corruption which infects every aspect of public life. Current President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came into office on an anti-corruption ticket and the main agency leading the charge has been the Corruption Eradication Commission or KPK