Indonesia has intensified its crackdown on illegal logging as the scale of destruction from Cyclone Senyar becomes clearer, with the Forestry Ministry yesterday revealing that 11 businesses in Tapanuli Selatan District, North Sumatra, will be investigated for contributing to deadly floods and landslides.
The proceedings come after Indonesia suspended all timber harvesting and transportation across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra on Wednesday after nearly 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Large volumes of timber debris were swept downstream during the disaster, turning logs into battering rams that destroyed homes, bridges, and public infrastructure.
“Currently, the Forestry Ministry has sealed or is verifying the sites of 11 legal entities, namely four corporations and seven PHATs (Land Rights Holders),” Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said on Thursday. The companies are PT TPL, PT AR, PT TBS/PT SN, and PLTA BT/PT NSHE, along with seven PHATs identified as JAM, AR, RHS, AR, JAS, DHP, and M. Three of the PHATs — JAS, AR, and RHS — are already being prosecuted.
Investigators from the Directorate General of Law Enforcement (Gakkum) have carried out field verification and crime‑scene inspections at several corporate sites, where they found warning signs issued by the Forest Area Enforcement Task Force. Early findings suggest “a criminal act of harvesting or collecting forest products within the forest has occurred without the necessary rights or approval from authorised officials.”
At the PHAT JAM site, investigators uncovered approximately 60 logs, 150 pieces of processed wood, an excavator, a damaged bulldozer, a damaged logging truck, two splitting machines, a planer and a drilling machine. The discovery follows the interception of four trucks loaded with timber allegedly originating from the exact location without proper documentation. Gakkum is now gathering evidence to map the network behind the alleged operations and determine the modus operandi that contributed to the ministry’s description of forest ecosystem destruction linked to the hydrometeorological disaster.
“We hope the local government can support the Gakkum in enforcing the law in this case, considering the extraordinary impact of this crime. In addition to causing damage to the forest ecosystem, it also compromises the safety of the people,” Antoni said.
The crackdown coincides with emergency measures imposed after Cyclone Senyar, which triggered catastrophic flooding across Sumatra. Laksmi Wijayanti, Director General of Sustainable Forest Management, told the Jakarta Post that extreme weather and the accumulation of logs in river systems had raised urgent concerns about mitigation and accountability. “The current climate conditions require all parties to adjust and adopt serious mitigation measures because disaster risks are increasing,” she said.
Under the moratorium, forestry companies must revise their annual work plans to prioritise ecosystem protection, ensure flood‑control infrastructure is functioning, keep waterways clear of log debris, and secure stockpiled timber. “The government’s main focus now is handling floodborne timber, which can be used to accelerate recovery efforts in affected areas,” Wijayanti said.
Last week, Wood Central reported that logs dislodged by Cyclone Senyar caused massive damage in Northern Sumatra. “Everywhere you look — left and right along the road — there are piles of timber,” said Sarma Hutajulu, a volunteer assisting with clean‑up efforts in Tukka District, who spoke to the New York Times. “Those are what smashed into people’s homes.”
Officials have acknowledged that logging — both legal and illegal — intensified the disaster. Large areas of Sumatra’s forests have been converted to palm oil estates, pulpwood plantations, mining operations, and logging concessions. Timber debris from these sites became lethal projectiles once the storm hit. “I saw it myself in the field, there were so many logs being carried away,” said Walden Sitanggang, a pastor and environmental activist quoted by the New York Times. “Logs don’t just fall from the sky — they must have come from logging activities upstream.”
