Indonesia: Deforestation rate gets in Guinness book of world records again

This world record ranks Indonesia’s deforestation rate as the world’s
highest, at 1.8 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005 — a
loss of 2 percent of its forests each year. This is the second year
Indonesia made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for its
deforestation. Rachmat complained that the reports used obsolete data.
The minister said that in the past two years, deforestation in the
country had decreased sharply thanks to the decline in forest fires,
and that Indonesia was 24th in the world in terms of emitters. The
deforestation rate between 1987 and 1997 was recorded at 1.8 million
hectares. From 1998-2000, it rose sharply to 2.8 million hectares per
year because of severe forest fires, before falling back to 1.8
million hectares per year between 2000 and 2006. A study conducted by
Indonesia Forest Watch (FWI) found the conversion of forests into oil
palm plantations contributed the most to deforestation with big
companies being the main culprits. The study, conducted in Central
Kalimantan, Riau and Papua, found that palm oil companies preferred to
convert forested areas rather than use idle land.

A study by
Greenomics Indonesia warned that deforestation would increase if the
government failed to resolve overlapping permits from government
agencies. The study showed that about 18.4 million hectares of forest
concession areas and production had been occupied illegally, mostly by
plantation and mining companies that were granted permits by regents.
The most controversial issue for forest protection is Government
Regulation No. 2/2008 on non-tax revenue from forests, which allows 13
mining companies to operate in protected forests. The regulation was
issued just two months after Indonesia won international praise for
successfully hosting the UN climate change conference in Bali, which
adopted the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation
(REDD) mechanism. Under the much-debated REDD mechanism, rich nations
would provide financial incentives for forestry nations, including
Indonesia, to stock carbon in forests to mitigate climate change. The
non-tax regulation also contradicted the national action plan on
climate change made by the environment ministry and officially
launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the Bali
conference. The main issue in all this is that Indonesia is extremely
vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially in the form of
floods and other natural disasters. It is time for the government to
take concrete action to resolve environmental problems.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/12/22/government-more-bark-bite.html

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