Marak Pembalakan Liar, Pemkab Halmahera Malut Forms Special Task Force

Kasiruta Island, South Halmahera Regency is prone to illegal logging, due to lack of supervision, Wednesday (1/3/2023). (ANTARA)

TERNATE - The Government of South Halmahera Regency, North Maluku (Malut) will form a Task Force (Satgas) to anticipate the rise of illegal logging, resulting in flooding in the past month.

"I will form a Task Force to supervise the rise of illegal logging, because the cause of this illegal logging occurred in floods," said South Halmahera (Halsel) Regent Usman Sidik when contacted by ANTARA, Wednesday, March 1.

The Halsel Regency Government will form a Task Force to oversee the practice of illegal logging in all areas, because it is certain that flooding is everywhere due to logging carried out by irresponsible persons.

Therefore, if it is found that there are government officials from the sub-district and village heads who play with employers and ignore the community, they do not hesitate to impose strict sanctions on those concerned.

"Strictly, it has rejected the presence of a number of companies operating in the management of wood that want to invest in Halsel Regency, even though the authority to grant permits is the North Maluku Provincial Government, districts must carry out strict supervision because the timber yields are taken in districts," said the regent.

According to him, the authority to grant permits is the provincial government and when there is arbitrary timber management because the argument has a permit, the authority to prevent and supervise is South Halmahera Regency by forming a Task Force.

He said the basis for the formation of the Task Force clearly refers to Article 83 Paragraph 1 Letter b, Law No. 18 of 2013 concerning Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction. Then, Article 21 of Law No. 13 of 2013, everyone is prohibited from utilizing wood resulting from illegal logging and/or illegal use of forest areas originating from conservation forests, but there are still illegal logging or illegal logging practices.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the South Halmahera KNPI DPD, Irfan Abdurrahim, stated that his party would continue to monitor illegal logging activities and if this happened, of course KNPI would reject it through various actions taking to the streets.

He acknowledged that the rise of illegal logging was not only due to the weakness of technical agencies but also law enforcement officials.

Therefore, KNPI appealed to the ranks of the South Halmahera Police to carry out intensive monitoring to ensure that there were no illegal loggings everywhere.