REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut) responds to a video of logs washed away by floods in North Sumatra, saying they most likely came from Land Rights Holders (PHAT) located in other use areas (APL).

“We detect that it's from PHAT in APL. PHAT is the Land Rights Holder. In the logging area that we detected from PHAT in APL, indeed, the mechanism for the naturally grown trees that follow forestry regulations in this case is SIPU, the Information System for the Management of Forest Products,” said the Director General of Law Enforcement (Gakkum) of Kemenhut Dwi Januanto Nugroho during a press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

The temporary guess, he said, was scrap wood that had weathered and then been dragged into the flood. A thorough inspection still needs to be carried out by the Gakkum Kemenhut team given that flooding events are still happening to date.

He acknowledged that Gakkum Kemenhut often carried out operations to dismantle the modus operandi of laundering illegal timber from illegal logging through PHAT. Including finding a number of cases in areas now affected by flooding in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

Asked if there is a possibility that the wood is the result of illegal wood washing through the PHAT scheme, Dwi Januanto said that he did not rule out that there is a potential for the wood to come from a similar mode.

“The guys are still checking, yes, but we are signaling it,” he explained.

Earlier, video footage posted on social media purportedly from South Tapanuli and Tapanuli Tengah in North Sumatra showed logs carried away by flooding.

A number of citizens attribute the trees to the phenomenon of deforestation in the Sumatra region, which has been affected by floods and landslides in recent times.

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