REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Environment Ministry and High Prosecutor's Office will conduct a joint investigation to crack down on illegal logging activities in Riau Province, the ministry's Director General of Law Enforcement, Rasio Ridho Sani, stated here, Monday.

Illegal logging has threatened the province's conservation forest, mainly in the Tesso Nilo National Park. The crime had also triggered several wildfires and haze in the province last year, Sani remarked. He said the authority has detained two suspects with the initials JS and ZY, as they had manipulated around 217 certificates of 550.15 hectares of land in the forest. 

In accordance with Law No. 41 of 1999, mainly Article 50, No. 3, and Article 78, No. 2, the suspects will be sentenced to 10 years in jail and be imposed a penalty of Rp five billion, the ministry's law enforcement bureau revealed.  "We followed the money trail while investigating environmental crimes, including illegal logging activities, which were rampant in the conservation forest," Sani noted.

A suspect JS was questioned earlier in 2004 by the province's Natural Resources Conservation Agency, but the case was closed owing to the lack of evidence.  The case, however, was reopened by the ministry's law enforcement bureau in 2009, the agency's head, Eduwar Hutapea, stated while adding that the documents had been submitted to the prosecutor's office for further investigation.

Located in the central eastern coast of Sumatra Island, Riau is a fire-prone province covered by palm oil plantations, peatlands, and rainforests, which are home to the endangered Sumatran tigers and elephants.  A severe haze in January had forced the provincial government to declare a state of emergency for weeks. The haze had reportedly degraded the air quality that reached a hazardous level, thereby leading to the cancellation of flights and closure of schools in the province. 

Several hotspots near the Tesso Nilo National Park were detected in February. At least three hectares of land at the site were burnt last month, an official stated in Pekanbaru, the province's capital city.

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