"The theft of fish and illegal logging in East Kalimantan are still rampant so it needs firm action and if necessary the culprits should be shot on sight," the governor, Suwana, was quoted as saying by the Antara news agency.

Suwana also said a shoot-on-sight policy would show that authorities are serious about protecting the environment.

East Kalimantan, on Borneo island, borders Sarawak and Sabah states in Malaysia.

Jakarta has urged Malaysia to take action against the trade in illegal timber from Indonesian forests and has called for a ban on Malaysian lumber in Europe.

Malaysia says Indonesia is not doing enough to curb illegal logging.

Illegal logging is rampant not just in the provinces of Kalimantan but in Sumatra island and other parts of Indonesia.

A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch and Forest Watch Indonesia said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest annually -- an area half the size of Switzerland.

The environmental group Greenpeace says Indonesia has the world's highest rate of forest loss and may see much of its lowland forest disappear by 2010.

Activists also cite illegal logging and other environmental destruction as the cause of most natural disasters in Indonesia.

TERRA.WIRE